A Solar Powered Headache
by Sir.Butter.Bottoms
Summary: Lucy loved all of her spirits, really she did, even the pervy cow and the playboy lion. But this particular light shooting giant was making it real hard for her when he went and caused more destruction than Natsu, Gray and Erza combined. And that was one of his easier traits to love. Rated T for now for pervy jokes and cussing.
1. Beware of Key!

**Ok so here we go peeps that start of what I hope to be a story that we'll all find enjoyable and give us warm fuzzy feelings of joy and happiness. Can't really explain how this story popped in my head or why I wanted these two to go on adventures with each other it just kinda happened. So I hope you all read, enjoy and then continue to keep reading and keep enjoying. So yeah just tell me what ya'll think and yeah... Go have fun.**

Beware of Key! Buy at your own risk!

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_"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." - J. R. R. Tolkien_

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Lucy walked next to Plue heading to the magic shop near her home feeling very satisfied after a surprisingly successful mission with her team. And when she said successful she meant that Erza, Natsu, and Gray didn't totally destroy the town that they were meant to protect and actually got some of the reward. She felt so satisfied infant that after she and her team had parted ways Lucy decided to go and splurge some money shopping.

Finally reaching the relativity small shop, Lucy let a happy smile pass on her face as she heard the soft tingling of the bell signaling her arrival.  
"Ah welcome, welcome young miss! Feel free to look around and if you need anything then don't hesitate to ask for my help!" The old store clerk greeted warmly from where she stood next to one of the displays, arranging it. Lucy smiled warmly at the older woman nodding at her as she started to browse. The little shop had a whole arrangement of knick knacks and oddities, however to Lucy's dismay there was nothing that was truly eye catching for her to spend on.

"Excuse me miss but might you be a celestial wizard?" The silence that had settled in the store was interrupted by the older woman. Surprised Lucy turned back to see the old woman nod to where Plue stood next to her doing his signature dance.

"Oh yeah I am actually, this little guy here is one my spirits; Plue." Lucy answered as she affectionately smiled down at Plue.

"One of your spirits?" The clerk titled her head.

Smiling once again at the older woman Lucy nodded before lifting her key ring up, it's charges jingling softly against each other. The old woman's eyes widened at the sight of not only the golden keys (and so many of them) but the large amount of silver keys also.

"My that's quite the collection you have there deary. I'm very impressed, I've never seen so many keys before." The clerk complemented warmly. Lucy was about to voice her thanks when she noticed the look that suddenly flashed across the old woman's eyes. The blonde couldn't help the shiver that ran up her spine.

_'S-So creepy. It's like she's looking into my soul!'_ Lucy thought frantically. A few more intense moments passed as Lucy began to break out into a cold sweat, fortunately though the old woman's face broke out into a grin.

"You just wait one second my dear I have just thing for you." With that the woman turned on her heal with surprising agility for someone her age and headed into the back. From where Lucy still stood in a daze, she could hear multiple shuffling noises before a loud crash shook the shop.

"Miss? Are you alright?" Lucy called out, worried.

"Oh fine, fine. I'm tougher than I look!" The old woman called out as she shuffled back out into the open space of the shop. In her hand was small and simple rectangular black box, nothing special about it all. Yet the way the old woman was holding it would make anyone think that it was the most precious treasure in the world.

The old woman gently placed it on the counter top in front of her and then carefully opened the box with gnarled hands to reveal a silver key surrounded by red velvet. Plue abruptly rushed forward to the counter where he jumped up and down waving his arms looking back at Lucy to be picked up. The celestial complied but was surprised to say the least at how Plue seemed to react to the key.

However Lucy was also confused by the key. For the life of her Lucy could see absolutely no abnormality with the key and there in lie the problem. All stellar keys, even silver keys, had different shapes and symbols but here was this regular looking house key. So it was only logical to think that key held no magical properties. It was probably scam the old lady was trying to sucker the blonde into.

Or at least that was what Lucy thought until Plue jumped out of her arms and waddled over to the key. He then picked it up and walked up and raised it to Lucy in offering cooing 'pun~.'

Still skeptical about the key but seeing no harm in at least holding it the blonde gently removed the key from Plue's grasp and held it in front of her face.

Nothing happened.

Lucy now thoroughly confused and a little frustrated opened her mouth to question the old woman when a light burst from her hand. Amazed and dazed the blonde gaped as the key was washed in light and grew and morphed into a new form. When the light faded the away the once plain key was now formed with the head of the key as sun the rays formed into pointed spikes. In the white center was a seagull, it's legs sticking out on either side of its body.

"Whoa..." Lucy mumbled in awe.

"Hmm, yes I thought that would happen. You have that look to you." The clerk muttered to herself so quietly that Lucy almost missed it.

"What do you mean I have 'that look to me?' You knew this would happen?" Lucy questioned.

"Hmm? Well I didn't know it would happen, it was just a guess."

"Well why did it do that and why me? What look do I have? What spirit does this key summon? I've never seen or heard of a key like this..."

"Ohohoho so many questions, most of them I unfortunately can't answer. All you need to know is that you somehow need to convince whatever that key summons to come out. Then you will understand." The woman spoke mysteriously. At this point it was safe to say that Lucy very much shaken and beyond the point of confusion. She clutched at the strange key tightly in front of her chest, her eyebrows had drawn together above brown eyes displaying every emotion crossing them.

Lucy was unsure how to proceed, on one hand she could just drop the key and walk out the store and attempt to forget the whole thing had happened (which would probably be the most logical and safest choice), or let her curiosity get the better of her and pay for the key and whatever new mysteries and adventures it held (which seemed like the most interesting choice and really the key couldn't be that dangerous).

...Could it?

The old clerk could obviously sense the celestial wizard's doubt and must have decided that she would be forced to intervene as she leaned in closely towards Lucy. This action Lucy to become flustered quickly as the woman's head barely reached Lucy's shoulders meaning that the old woman's leaning caused a rather awkward position, or at least awkward for Lucy. The older of the two didn't seem to notice as she stared long and hard at her junior through the slits she called eyes.

"What? Your not going to buy it? And after nearly killing myself to get you that key just for you make me go and strain myself just to put it back where all it will do is gather dust! Oh just think about that poor spirit all alone and goodness knows that key has been in this shop for years! Can you imagine!? Years! All alone! And then there's my income! My little ol' shop just can't keep up with the bigger ones around here anymore and these bones just aren't wha-"

"W-wait! Wait! I never said I wouldn't buy it! It's just tha-"

"Perfect! That'll be 50,000 Jewels!" Before Lucy knew it the silver key had been snatched out of her hand, rung up, paid for, and was abruptly shoved out back onto the street. Lucy simply stood in a daze shocked that the supposedly 'feeble' old woman had essentially just taken Lucy's money without her full consent and so quickly done as well. Anger rose and the blonde turned around to give the crazy old coot a what for when she saw the old bat had put up a closed sign.

"Why that-" Lucy began to seethe but abruptly stopped when she felt a tug on her blue mini skirt. Looking down Lucy saw that it was Plue who held his paw up trying to reach for the key in Lucy's hand. Startled, Lucy hadn't realized that the old woman had given it back without her even realizing it, Lucy bent down to Plue and gave him the key.

The hard stare that Plue gave the key as he held it both paws caused Lucy to forget her ire and giggle. She couldn't help it. The image of the small spirit dog giving an even smaller object such a serious look was too cute. Still it was strange how Plue was reacting to the key.

Granted the key in it's self was strange. Really of all her years studying celestial magic Lucy had never heard of key quite like this one. Gently Lucy reached down to pick up Plue and took the key back from him. Holding the key in front of her Lucy studied the object, carefully looking for clues that could answer any of her questions.

But there was nothing any different about it from any of her other keys. Well you know, other than the fact that it transformed.

Well guess there's only one way to find out...

With that Lucy thrust her hand forward, tunneled her magic into the key and shouted "open!"

Aaaanndd nothing happened.

Thoroughly confused Lucy heaved a deep breathe and tried again. Again nothing happened.

"Aww man I bet that old lady conned me into buying a fake one!" Lucy pouted. However still determined to make sure that there was something special about this key Lucy reached deep down inside of herself an into her pool of magic. When Lucy felt her magic flow around her Lucy focused her magic into the key resting in her hand. The effect was almost immediate as the key's door appeared in her mind's eye.

_'Well at least it's not a fake...'_

The door was different though. Unlike most stellar spirit doors that seemed to have their own light originating from them, this door looked like it had a spot light shining on it from somewhere else. Also where most spirit doors were bright and golden and grand in design with vivid ornate carvings down to the smallest detail this door was boring. It was a simple plain wooden door with a gold door nob, in the center a large gold sun with a seagull carved into it, just like the design on the key. However unlike the key the words _Unclear Justice _were written right underneath the seagull. The only the thing that stuck out about the door was how plain it was.

Lucy 'approached' the door and gave it a tug. Yet to Lucy's surprise the door refused to budge. Again she tugged at it and continued to do so for the next few minutes but every time it refused to move. It was like it was locked and whatever was on the other side didn't want to come out. It was to say the least strange to the celestial mage. Never had she heard about a spirit refusing to come out, maybe not going back in, but definitely not allowing itself to be summoned. She hadn't even realized spirits could refuse summons. They could refuse to follow certain orders or act out but to straight out not come to summoners request? It was unheard of for her.

_'Maybe they're just shy?' _So with that thought in mind the blonde tried speaking to it.

_"Hello? Is anyone there? There's no need to worry, I don't mean you any harm. I'm Lucy Heartfilia! But you can just call me Lucy! It'd be really cool if I could meet you! I promise I won't bite and I really like to be friends with you! So whadya say, huh? How about you come on out and we can talk for a little bit?" _Lucy coaxed gently trying to get the spirit to come out. She had no idea how long she waited for anything to happen but to her everlasting disappointment nothing did. Reluctantly Lucy accepted defeat and pulled back into the real world, releasing her magic, where Plue stood shaking next to Lucy. The blonde looked up at the sky to see that sunset had finally set and that in it's place had been filled with the beautiful array stars and galaxies which under normal circumstances would always up lift the blonde but tonight she just couldn't bring her self to be happy when disappointment gnawed at her heart.

She had thought with that with the way that old woman had been going on about it... that the key would be something special...

But it wasn't. It was just some broken key... A disappointment... Just like her...

And with those thoughts drifting in her mind Lucy began the trek home, Plue loyally by her side and broken key in hand.

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**Can you guess who our dynamic duo is yet?**

**So? Love it? Hate it? Meh? I know it's not much and to be honest I've really been struggling to get the first few chapters down on paper, but I can't help it I'm just so excited for when stuff really starts to kick up. Ah well so what mistakes are there? What should I change? Lucy too out of character? Hard to understand? Booooring? Comments make the world go around.**


	2. Like a Can of Worms

**Alright everybody here we go! The next chapter! Whoooo! Gosh I hadn't meant to pack all this stuff into one chapter but then I thought 'hey the sooner I get this stuff out the way then the sooner the fun stuff can happen' so here we are! Man this past week has been awesome! Finally got this story up, made good grades on tests, found out that game of thrones is coming back on in April, saw Lone Survivor, but do you what the best part of this week was? Seeing that I got reviews! And follows! Annnd favorites!**** Not gonna lie I may have had the dumbest looking grin on my face when I saw them.** I really hadn't been expecting anything. Ya'll are freaking awesome ya'll know that? Oh probably should have stated this in the beginning but this story takes place after the Grand Magic Games Arc and is totally ignoring anything canon after that. For now at least. On the One Piece side I'm thinking three years before Luffy goes off and does his thing.

**Daxen123 - Thanks! Hope the confusion will clear up soon as I get further into the story.**

**OnePieceFan2- Thank you very much! I had been worried that the opening might have been a little boring since nothing too exciting happened but I'm glad you think it's interesting!**

**TheBlackSeaReaper - I'm so glad you love it so far! I hope I can keep you loving it!**

**KittyCatt1036 - Thank you!**

**Milleniumclone45 - More than coherent it's amazing! Gotta say when I read your review I kinda squealed. Just a little though ;). I think one of my biggest fears for future chapters is going to keeping everyone in character. However Lucy at least I feel like I have a decent enough grip on and reading your review made me feel incredibly relieved that I wasn't just stroking my own ego. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!**

**RisingNight- Such a relief that you think it's original! I can't tell you how proud of myself you just made me! So thank you soooo much! I did make it kinda obvious huh?**

**Seriously! I owe all of you that have read, this a mother-freaking cookie.**

**Really that Key is like a Can of Worms**

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_"It's the friends that you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." - Marlene Dietrich_

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Everyone's favorite busty barmaid let a frown mar her face as she watched the young blonde sitting in front of her sigh again in defeat. Levy who was sitting next to the blonde also looked on in worry. Their staring was interrupted however by the arrival of the iron dragon slayer.

"Hey Mira can I get another?" Gajeel grunted as he slammed his empty mug down.

Mira nodded placing the glass she had been cleaning down before going off to get Gajeel a refill. The iron wizard blinked, finally sensing the depressing atmosphere on his right where Lucy sat with her face planted into the wooden bar. Gajeel stared blankly at her before looking up at Levy on Lucy's other side.

"Oi, what's wrong with bunny girl?" Gajeel questioned none to gently. Levy however didn't notice and continued to look at the celestial wizard in worry as she answered.

"I'm not sure but she came in about an hour ago, ordered a smoothie and then just... well... just... did this." Levy gestured to Lucy. Gajeel paused for a moment looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Hmm maybe she's just depressed she doesn't have a boyfriend?" Gajeel smirked as he poked her side, testing to see if she was still among the living.

"THAT'S NOT WHY!" Lucy suddenly flew up almost hitting her best friend and the dragon slayer when her head jerked back. Both of them just blinked owlishly at her unsure how to react to the blonde's sudden revival.

Lucy however didn't notice as she shoved her face into the palms of her hands groaning.

"The reason why I'm so depressed is because of my new keyyy" Lucy whined, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. Gajeel and Levy were both obviously confused causing Lucy to place the key in question on the counter top. Simple and unassuming the sun shaped silver key glinted up at the threesome innocently.

"I don't see whats wrong with it." Gajeel concluded turning to face the blonde girl.

"I tried to summon the spirit, but whoever they are won't come out. I thought that maybe it was fake but I can definitely feel the connection of something to the key." Lucy sighed out dramatically.

"Well what spirit is it?" Mira suddenly voiced, startling the three who had been too involved in their conversation to notice the arrival of the oldest Strauss sibling.

"What the hell woman! You can't just go sneaking up on people like that!" Gajeel bellowed angrily at the barmaid. Mirajane, however looked completely unfazed as she smiled teasingly at the startled dragon slayer.

"I'm sorry Gajeel, I just thought that someone so powerful and with such great hearing would have heard lil' ole me coming from a mile away." Mira teased gently. Giggling in delight at the flustered glare and the mumbled 'stupid she-devil' sent her way, Mira turned back to the younger blonde who was also grinning at Gajeel's reaction.

"So?" Mira ushered gently.

"Huh?" Lucy blinked, before an embarrassed expression took hold of her delicate features. Bringing a hand up to scratch the back of her head. "Well that's another thing. I don't exactly know. And what's even stranger is that when I first bought the key was just plain. There wasn't anything on it." Lucy explained.

"What do you mean by that?" Levy asked.

Ten minutes later the bar tender, the bookworm, and the metal head all sat around the blonde with their heads resting on their fists, brain storming.

"Maybe the problem is that your magic levels are too low?" Mira gently suggested.

"Or maybe you have to state the spirit's name in order for it to be summoned?"

"Or maybe it has to see you in a bunny costume, gihi!" All three women turned to him deadpanned not believing that such a stupid suggestion had come out of the iron dragon slayer's mouth. Really you'd think they'd be used to it by now.

"We're trying to helpful here Gajeel, not show how stupid we are." Levy said snarkly, crossing her arms and lifting her chin up. Lucy and Mira shared a knowing look with each other before giggling at the two. Watching the bluenette and dragon slayer begin one of their routine arguments Lucy mulled over Mira and Levy's suggestions.

While it certainly was helpful and did tend reduce the amount of magic needed to summon a spirit, incantations were not necessary. The reason being that celestial keys could be lost for hundreds of years at a time and in such a long period of time people tended to loose track of spirits and their names. So it couldn't be that she had to say the name.

However Mira could be right. More powerful keys required more magic just like any powerful spell. There was a good chance that she just didn't have the amount of magic needed, but she was able to summon even the most powerful of the golden keys, Loke, and that was nothing to sneeze at. Say what you want but bringing spirits into her world and keeping them there to fight was no easy feat. While Lucy was no where near the level as, say, Erza, that didn't mean her levels were in short supply. So to think that she couldn't summon a spirit because her level wasn't high enough must have meant that the spirit connected to the key must be insanely powerful.

A shudder raced down her spine at that thought and she glanced down at the silver clutched tightly in her hand. But wait... it was silver key. There was no way that a silver key would require more magic to summon than a golden one. While silver keys were useful in there own ways and some were more rare than others, when it came to prowess in battle silver keys just couldn't match up with golden ones.

Besides there was something strange about that door, and not just the fact that it seemed locked. She hadn't noticed it yesterday but there had been confusion and... amusement? It was weird but she could have sworn those two emotions had been emitting from the door. Which led back to her original guess, that the spirit was just flat out refusing to come out by it's own choice.

But why?

"ALRIGHT BRATS LISTEN UP!"

Suddenly Lucy was brought of her pondering, Mira out of her giggling, and Levy and Gajeel from their fighting, to look up at their master as he stood on top of railing on the second floor. Makarov crossed his arms waiting for his guild's usual load roar to dull down into silence before he began his announcement.

"As you all know the Grand Magic Games are coming up in two weeks and I've seen that you've all been training your little hearts out to get a spot in the team this year. I have finally decided the team that will represent us this year. So without further ado..." The whole guild seemed to be suspended in silence some hoping desperately to be chosen, others simply curious, and some having crucial bets riding on it.

"Laxus." The lightning dragon slayer in question let a cocky smirk cross his face.

"Erza." At this Erza smiled proudly, and determinedly nodded her head.

"Mirajane." The bar tender blinked and then smiled abashedly a light pink dusting her cheeks.

"Gajeel" The iron dragon slayer smirked maliciously at the prospect of showing of his power.

"And finally..." By this point it was obvious that Natsu was on the edge of his seat his eyes as wide as they could go and Lucy would go to her grave swearing up and down that Natsu had a little bit of drool hanging out of his mouth.

_'I get being excited for competing and it is Natsu. But can someone really be that excited? That's almost sad.'_ Lucy sweat dropped.

"Gray."

Wait for it... and one, two, annnd three.

"WHAT THE HELL GRAMPS!? HOW COULD PICK THE ICE-PRICK OVER ME!?"

"FOR EXACTLY THIS REASON! AND BECAUSE I SAID SO!"

"BUT GRAY'S SUCH A PERVERT!"

"WANNA SAY THAT TO MY FACE FLAME-BRAIN?"

"YEAH I DO! YOU'RE A PERVERTED ICE-PRINCESS AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT!"

"AT LEAST I'M NOT SOME IDIOT THAT SMELLS LIKE SWEAT ALL THE TIME!"

"THAT'S IT LETS GO!"

"BRING IT ON FIRE FART!"

"WHY YO-"

"Natsu! Gray! Are you two fighting in the master's presence!?" A quick word from Erza and the fighting duo were down. It sometimes scared Lucy that she was so used to this.

"Thank you Erza." Makarov nodded his head before clearing his throat. "Now back to business. It wasn't easy, but I picked this team because not only have they demonstrated great battle prowess but that they also represent the best of Fairy Tail. And the also have a little self-restraint unlike some people. So there you have it. When we go to the Magic Games I expect you five to be on your best behavior and to carry your responsibility with pride. So don't screw up. But have fun out there... but really don't screw. It'll make Fairy Tail look bad. No pressure." And with those wise words of wisdom master turned on his heel to return to his office.

Which turned out to be a horrible idea as there is very little surface area on railings so one when turns on their heel one would hope that they have at least moderate balance. As it turned out Master Makarov had none.

The guild watched with morbid fascination as the tiny man feel with a 'wwwaahhhh' and landed gracefully on his head. Mira rushed to his side quickly to help him. When it was apparent that he was still in working condition the old man turned to his so called children.

"YOU BRATS DON'T ANY OF YOU HAVE RESPECT FOR YOUR ELDERS! NONE OF YOU EVEN TRIED TO HELP ME! WHY, BACK IN MY DAY-"

"Ahh master maybe you should go up stairs and rest for a bit." Mira gently and quickly somehow manged to usher Makarov up the stairs and into the infirmary. Needless to say the guild would be eternally grateful to Mira for saving them from the infamous 'In My Day' speech.

Sometimes Lucy worried for her guild.

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Two weeks later found the city Crocus in a multitude of noises, smells and sights in preparation for the Start of the Grand Magic Games tomorrow. Everywhere a person looked color and sweet smelling pastries would assault their sense, creating an atmosphere charged with excitement. Marbled streets shone under sunlight and moonlight, while the buildings around them were lined with banners boasting welcomings and advertising. Children ran through the streets throwing fire crackers while their fathers indulged in drink and their mothers chattered and browsed the market. Friends bought shirts supporting their favorite guilds and couples sat on benches looking at each other with googly eyes. Yes Crocus was the place to be during GMGs as people from all over Fiore and even neighboring countries came cheer and watch as wizards duked it out against one another. It was safe to say that every person in Crocus was happy.

Except one.

Lucy was the one person in the entire city who seemed to be having trouble getting into the spirit if things. It wasn't that she didn't love festivals and the like, it was just that she couldn't help but think that every time someone looked in her direction they immediately remembered the events that happened last year. Just some dumb blonde who was only kept around for her looks, always so needy and unreliable. A waste of space.

Lucy knew that her friends would never think of her like that and that they genuinely loved her. But in Lucy's mind they didn't need to, after getting creamed twice at the GMGs that was all the proof needed. And there in lie the reason for Lucy's discomfort for being in Crocus. Last years magic games.

Sighing at the memories that came to mind Lucy stepped out of the shower and began to dry off. 'Well,' Lucy thought beginning to go through her nightly routine, 'at least all I have to do is watch and cheer on my guild. That way I don't embarrass myself like last year.' True Flare cheated but if it had been Erza or Juvia they wouldn't have lost even with Asuka in danger, no doubt they would have found a way. Then against Minerva Lucy was still so useless because her keys were taken. Again! It was so frustrating being in that position.

Lucy sighed to herself as she finished pulling on her pajamas, a simple faded baby blue tank top and short black pants, and walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom that she was sharing with Levy, Erza, Carla and Wendy. The hotel the guild had rented out was different than the one from last year. The Luna de Rosa was small but quaint, more like a hostel than a hotel, with wooden floors and thin walls it was easy for Lucy to hear the ruckus still going on down stairs. The bedroom that the girls had been placed in was standard nothing special, just two queen beds placed next to each other and night stand separating them.

Lucy plopped down on to the bed that she would be sharing with Erza, her arms thrown out to her sides. The blonde laid there basking in the feel of her muscles loosening from the hot shower. Listening the sound of her steady breathing and enjoying the smell of vanilla that came from her hair Lucy began to feel her mind go blank and sleep overtake her.

BANG!

The loud noise of the door flying open cause Lucy to jerk awake and sit up. Looking over to the doorway she smiled in greeting when she saw her four roommates walk in, their arms filled with plates of various desserts and alcoholic beverages (and soft drinks for Wendy).

"We brought you offerings, my goddess!" Levy teased as she carefully began to plates on the bed.

"As you should!" Lucy played along laughing. Erza smiled at the two's antics and Wendy giggled behind her hands while Carla simply rolled her eyes. After placing her load on the center of the bed, the red head moved to the corner of the room where the mini bar was located. Grabbing the bottle opener that rested there Erza walked back to the bed and popped open three light beers and handed them to three older women.

Now all five were settled on the bed each with a drink fitting their age .

"What's with all this?" Lucy questioned reaching for a cream puff that was calling her name.

"Well we saw how down you've been looking today and we thought 'hey what better way to cheer a girl up than stuffing her up with desserts and beer?'" Levy explained through a mouthful of chocolate brownies. Lucy winced that guild mates had noticed but couldn't help being grateful that they would devote their time to try and cheer her up. Still though, she also couldn't help but feel guiltily for worrying them.

"You guys really didn't have to do that you know! Really I'm fine!" Lucy smiled at them trying to hide her emotions.

"Well at any rate it's nice to have some girl time and relax." Erza smiled, taking a swig of her beer, knowing full well what her team mate was trying to do, also knowing it was better to drop the subject for now.

"Are you sure you should be drinking that Scarlet? You do have a long day ahead of you tomorrow." Carla chided.

Four hours later at around ten p.m. found Wendy asleep thrown across her bed, Levy also asleep and thrown across Wendy, and the drunken threesome of Carla, Lucy and Erza sitting outside on the bedroom's balcony giggling. Both women and exceed were red faced but in drunken bliss and for the moment, understanding why Cana drank so heavily.

"'so's i'm like whasts I supposesds to doooo?" Carla shook her head and the red head next to nodded sagely in response to Lucy's drunken slur as if she completely understood what the blonde was saying.

"You're RIGHT! How dare those- those FIENDS! Do they not know the that when you combine the power of a woman's heart and with the power of bunnies that the outcome cannot be guaranteed!? Woe the horror!" Erza slammed her fist on the table. Completely enraged by... whatever they were talking about.

"Esactlyyy! Thoscces meanies!"

"Home-destroyers!"

"Poopie pants!"

"Evil doers!"

"Pants for brains!"

"Flowers!"

"Sharlie you said a bad wowduh!" Lucy and Carla gasped, scandalized. The drunkenly violent Erza nodded her headed.

"Well they are-"

Erza was cut off when a bright light blinded them. All three of them glanced to find the source and saw that it was coming from a lacrima-vision floating in the sky. The drunken trio were enraptured by the beautiful white glow that was coming from the screen before static washed it away and was replaced by the talking pumpkin Mato.

"Wakey wakey, everyone - pum!" Mato's childish voice flooded across the city waking all that had been sleeping in the city and bringing them outside to see what the noise was all about. Looking around them Erza and Lucy saw that the windows and balconies of the hotel were being opened by their fellow guild members. Right next them Gray, Natsu, Gajeel, and Elfman walked out on to their own balcony.

"Nee what's that noise?" A sleepy Happy asked floating next to an equally sleepy Natsu.

"It's the Gingerbread man!" Was the angry reply. The men looked over to see a raging Erza trying to claw her way to the lacrima-vision with a giggling Lucy barely holding onto her.

"Ohhh Ezra-chwan's so mean!" Lucy giggled.

"Don't tell me they've been drinking." Natsu murmured remembering the horrors from last time.

"Oi Carla! I thought you were the responsible one but you look like you've been drinking too. We do start the games tomorrow you know and Erza needs to be in top shape!" Gray yelled.

"Oh she'll be fine! And I _am _the responsible one! I've only had a few sips, I'll remember everything tomorrow, unlike those two."

"Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome! It's Mato here, the Grand Magic Games' lovable mascot and you're host! Well everybody it's that time of year again where wizards from all over Fiore come to compete and represent their guilds! As you all know guilds earn points by either doing battle against one another or different kinds of challenges called events! Whichever guild earns the most points by the end of the Games will be declared the strongest guild in Fiore and earn a cash prize - pum! However" Mato began darkly sending a chill down everyone's spine through Crocus, "this year's games are going to be a little different."

"Is anyone else getting a bad feeling from this?" Gray questioned uneasily.

"Don't worry Gray-sama! Juvia will protect you!" Came the shout from two floors above them.

"Since last years games were so popular, the game council figured it would be a tough act to follow. So we were faced with a dilemma. How do we make this year's game to be just as exciting and interesting as last years? Well we decided that we would have a vote! Fans of the Games were given choices of who they wanted to see in an event with each other or who they wanted to watch fight against each other. For example say fans wanted to see Natsu of Fairy Tail have a rematch against Sting of Sabertooth all they have to do is go up to one of our designated voting booths and check their names of and write 'battle' and viola! Also unlike last year guilds no longer have teams to represent them, instead anyone from the guild can be chosen so long as the voters vote for that member. So make sure all guild members come to the games tomorrow morning because anyone who does not participate will be counted as forfeit and all points will automatically go to the opposing teams. Oh that reminds me! Instead of having preliminary rounds like last year voters also voted on the eight guilds they would like to see participate. Those guilds are Fairy Tail, Sabertooth, Lamia Scale, Mermaid heel, Blue Pegasus, Quatro Cerberus, Titan Nose, and Twilight Ogre! Congrats! Can't wait to see you all tomorrow! Remember to get a good night's rest! And good luck - pum~!" And with that the pumpkin head flickered off the screen leaving all who watched to their own devices worrying about what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

_'No! No nonononononononono! This can't be happening! What kind of sick person would want to watch this!? I- I can't do this! Not after last year!'_ Lucy had been picked. Lucy had been picked to _battle_. Lucy had been picked to battle _against Minerva Orlando_. No. To Lucy this was not good, this was horrible! Words could not describe how terrified she was to go out into the roaring stadium where she _knew _without a doubt that Minerva was standing smug as a bug. Oh how she so, so desperately wanted to back out from the fight but that would mean Minerva won and Lucy would be forever known as a coward. And while Lucy may be seen as a weakling by many she refused to be known as the coward of Fairy Tail. Mavis help her Lucy would go out there and give it her all.

Even if it meant taking another beating like last year.

Off to side Makarov watched his child with worry and pity in his eyes, seeing and feeling every emotion that crossed her face. Even from where he stood Makarov could see the struggle to keep the tears from falling and how her entire body shook with anxiety.

"Lucy..." he started but was quickly cut off by the blonde.

"Please don't. Please... don't finish what you were about to say." The blonde didn't trust herself enough if she was offered the choice to back out. "I have to do this. Not just because the guild's reputation is at risk or how I'll look if I don't fight but because if I don't do this... if I don't get over this and I don't fight her, I'll never be able to look myself in the mirror and call myself a Fairy Tail wizard!" Lucy let her blonde hair fall over her face so she could hide her fear from the master. Not that it really helped when her voice trembled with overwhelming emotion. None the less it made her feel a little bit better.

"Very well then, if that's how you feel. But Lucy... know that no matter what you do as long as it is what you're heart desires Fairy Tail will always be proud of you and we will always be your family. And family will always be there... no matter how much you sometimes you wish they weren't." Makarov chuckled and Lucy couldn't stop the small smile that spread across her lips.

Lucy reached for her keys, clutching them tightly in her small hand. It had always been something that helped calm her, the cool metal against her palm, the small insignia imprinting on her skin. The celestial wizard closed her brown eyes attempting to shut off the rest of the world and try and center herself, instead focusing on her breathing attempting to keep it steady and even. Then the strangest thing happened. A wave of reassurance washed over her, coming up from her hand holding the keys and flooding into the rest of her body. The stellar mage's eyes flew open to look down at her keys in wonder. Something like that had never happened before, always feeling the connection of the stellar spirits, yes, but none of them had been able to project emotions onto her like that. Although she didn't have the sun key either. Looking down at it, the key shone in the light... mischievously? It sounded insane but there was no other way to describe it.

_"Thank you!"_

Then the blonde looked back up shocking Makarov with determined look on her face and began to stomp forward into the arena.

"Well, wish me luck.

"Good luck." Makarov whispered worriedly and turned quickly to return to his seat with the guild to watch the fight.

When Lucy stepped out into the light of the colosseum, the poor girl almost fell from the force of all the yelling that came from the spectators. Glancing around she tried to find her guild and ignore the sheer amount people packed into the stands.

"LUCE!" Snapping her neck to where she heard the shout of Natsu she found her guild, each person yelling something encouraging. She smiled and waved at them before turning back to where Mato had walked out onto the field.

"Welcome to the first day of the Grand Magic Games! To start us we have a very special match! Lucy of Fairy Tail vs Minerva of Sabertooth!" Finally deciding to acknowledge her foe Lucy gulped and glanced up. Only half listening to Mato explain the rules animatedly, Lucy studied her enemy. Dressed in her usual get up, Minerva looked every bit the predator with a cruel looking smile painting themselves on her lips and hip cocked out to the side. Scared as she may be, Lucy couldn't help the urge that surged through her to pound that stupid smug smile off of Minerva's face. Scoffing Lucy rolled her eyes. Like that would ever happen.

"Contestants! Are you ready?!" Mato shouted looking between the two women. Lucy immediately dropped into a fighting stance. With Minerva still so far away Sagittarius or even Scorpio would be most effective for now. Maybe if she could keep Minerva at a distance somehow she would have a chance at scoring some hits. That of course would require Lucy to somehow keep as much distance between her and Minerva because if it came to close combat Lucy would be in trouble. But above all else she had to keep a hold of her keys.

Finally with some form of plan Lucy nodded her head and gripped tight on Sagittarius' key.

"Begin - pum!" And with that Mato raced off the field.

"Open! Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!" Quickly the horse man was beside her, bow at the ready and pointing at Minerva who still stood un-moving.

"Ready when you are, Princess! Hello hello!"

"Let's go!" And with that Sagittarius unleashed a barge of speeding arrows onto Minerva. For a split second Lucy was sure that at least one of them would hit their target but that hope was crushed with the wave of a hand. Quickly almost before Lucy could react the arrows were suddenly coming at _her_.

"Sagittarius try and shoot them down!" Without even acknowledging the order the spirit shot arrow after arrow but still struggling to knock some of the oncoming ones from the sky. Lucy seeing that her friend wouldn't be able to get all of them on time un-clipped her whip and flung it through the air finishing off the rest. Then a loud boom shook the earth beneath her and rock came flying up from the ground. To her horror Lucy felt the air next her head shift in the tell tale sign of Minerva's magic being used. Ducking quickly and then rolling forward, Lucy quickly turned on her heel and whipped out her next key.

_'I need to get her away from me__.'_ With that thought in mind Lucy summoned Scorpio.

"Quick! Get her as far away as you can!" A gush of sand flew past her and straight at Minerva who had been finishing off Sagittarius. The cruel women turned in time however, to see the attack coming and quickly brought up a force field to block. The sand connected with the field and shot off in multiple directions however it did it's purpose as Minerva was shoved back several feet. Lucy couldn't help but grin. It may have been a small feat for some but for her it was enough.

"Way to go Scorpio keep it up!" From where Lucy stood she could see Minerva frown in annoyance under the torrent of sand being slung at her.

'_Ha take that you bi-" _The blonde's victory was cut short when in a flash of light Scorpio was suddenly replaced with an annoyed looking Minerva. This time Lucy didn't have time to duck as a fist encased in spacial magic connected with her jaw. The blonde was flung backwards and landed hard her back. Winded, Lucy had no time to react as Minerva once again appeared over her fist rushing to connect with the downed blonde's stomach. Lucy's saving grace however was the river of sand that blasted Minerva away allowing Lucy shoot up off the ground. Rushing back to Scorpio, Lucy thanked him and then sent him back to the celestial world.

This time Lucy reached for Loke's key. Or at least tried to, Lucy was lucky that she even grasped a key before a bone crushing grip wrapped itself around her dainty wrist and yanked her key ring from her belt.

_'No. Please. Not again.'_

Knowing the pain that was coming Lucy braced herself right as a bony knee introduced itself with her ribs. Crying out in pain when she felt the bones underneath her skin crack at the painful force, the blonde tried her best to hold back the tears even though they were already starting to pour down her face. The next blow was a rough fist, jingling telling her it was the one with her keys in it, connected with her temple which would have sent her flying if not for the harsh grip still holding her in Minerva's grasp.

"I'm so sick of having to deal with you and your trash spirits, little girl." The grip on her loosened only to have that same hand strike her across the face in a fierce slap.

"I bet you think your the hottest thing on this earth, don't you little girl?" Another kick to the gut.

"Well guess what, _little girl_." This time a harsh kick to her shin.

"Your nothing more than a waste. Of. Space." And with that Lucy was grabbed by her arm and thrown into the cold marble of the coloseum wall. Her world span briefly in a blur of color and silence as the back of her head connected loudly against the stone. Shutting her eyes to block it all out, Lucy contemplated just giving up, why bother trying when she was so vastly out matched. Master even said it would be OK to do so and why should she bother trying to continue fighting when it was obvious who was going to win from the start. No one would blame her, beaten as she was with at least a few broken ribs, probably a concussion and more than likely a fractured wrist. Besides with Minerva holding her keys there was no legitimate way for Lucy to fight back.

_Little girl._

Oh Lucy was so _angry, _so _frustrated_. Was this all she could ever hope to be!? Some _child _who would always make others do her dirty work and would cry when she didn't get her way? Why was she so _damned _helpless!? Not caring any more in her agony Lucy let her tears flow freely clutched hard at the key in her hand.

...key?

For the briefest of moments Lucy felt the smallest of hopes shimmer through her. It didn't matter what key it was, it could be Pyxis for Mavis' sake, and she would find some way to work with it. She would stand up and fight instead of cry like some baby. Forcing her body up onto her hands and knees Lucy finally opened her eyes.

And all that hope and optimism drained out of her body. Out of all her keys it just _had _to be that key.

There once again _freaking glinting _was the sun shaped key. Lucy could not believe her luck.

_'Lucky. Right, thanks for that dad.'_

Someone out there had to be laughing at her.

"I'm going to erase you from this world little fairy!" And with that battle cry Minerva unleashed a wave of spacial magic that charged towards the wounded wizard at a break neck speed. Wasting no more time and seeing that this was her only chance, Lucy blocked out all distractions and focused on reaching the key's door with her mind's eye. Connecting to the key she started her desperate attempts of pleading with the spirit.

_"Please," _Lucy begged, _"I have to do this. I _need _to do this! Not just for my guild, but for me too, I can't loose to her again! Not after the humiliation she put me through the last time and now she's doing it _again_! I have to beat her or at least try too! Right now whoever you are, your the only one who can help me achieve that!" _Tears began to swell up in her eyes again as she remembered the reason why she was in this situation. _"I'm sorry that I'm so _weak!_ I'm sorry that I'm nothing more than just some dumb blonde bimbo who always has to rely on someone else! I'm sorry that I'm nothing more than a little girl who's too pathetic to do anything else other than cry! But I can promise you this; no more! I'm not just going to sit here and complain about how weak and pathetic I am and cry whenever I get hurt! I will get stronger and I will protect the ones I love instead of having to be protected! But I can't get stronger until I beat her and to do that I need you! This will be the last time I ever call you, I swear it! Just please... help me... this once..."_

Silence and then...

_"Oooooo what a moving speech. Oooookay I'll help you outttt."_

* * *

**BAM! Finally brothers and sisters I am finished. Should I have made this into two chapters? Probably. But I don't care cause now shit is about to go down! So totally worth! Sorry if it seems at little half assed and rushed, but I kept redoing this chapter over and over and it just got to the point where I just flat out did not care and out of all the drafts this was the best one I think. Honestly at this point I'm just relieved I got it finished. Maybe I'll go back later when I'm in a better mood and referbish it but that probably won't happen any time soon. Ah well. **

**Anywho... Mistakes? Grammar issues? Offensive? Boring? Too long? Too rushed? Hard to understand what I'm trying to say? See anything that doesn't need to be in there? Repetitive? Stupid? Ideas? Just trash the story?**

**Hey you never know, reviews could become a the new renewable fuel of the world sooo... hey! **


	3. You've Done it Now

**AN: Soooooooooo please don't hurt me! I'm sorry it took me a while to update but I lost track of time and I've been so busy and ****I finally fell into temptation and watched the Demo of Dragon Age: Inqusition and then that caused me to go on a binge about Dragon Age stuff. Oh God I am going to go crazy by the time it's released in fall. Ugh but I suppose if it's taking longer to come out then it's going to be an even awesomer game! Still doesn't make waiting any easier. And yes believe it or not I think DA:I is going to be an awesome game, like up there with Halo awesome! Sorry I really shouldn't be rambling about DA on a FT/OP fanfic. Though out of curiosity how many of you play? Anywho...**

**Whoo here it is, another chapter! Yay! FINALLY now stuff can start pick up! Seriously I am so happy we've gotten here! Like this is the moment!**

**icefox94 - I think Kizaru's hilarious though. It's the face. Ugh never Blackbeard, seriously someone needs to introduce him to a toothbrush. And no one ever said that Ace wouldn't be making an appearance ;). **

**On Soaring Wings - Thank you. I'm very happy that you think so.**

**Guest - Lol here he is.**

**xlunatica - Thank you very much. Seriously your comment gave me warm fuzzies. It's one of my major goals to keep y'all on y'all's toes when reading this story. It's a huge relief that you think this is well written too. I find one of my biggest struggles with writing is explaining myself, so the fact that you think it's well written makes me immensely happy. Man can you imagine if everyone had their own personal Franky? LOL I don't think the world would survive. I apologize for the cliche use of GMGs, and to be honest it took a lot of inner debating on whether or not to use it and I almost didn't for exactly that reason. However I felt it would launch us into the meat of things the quickest and make the most effective impressionable start. But don't worry we'll only be skimming over the GMGs and it won't be the main setting of the story. And Minerva most certainly did leave ST however I've chosen to ignore everything canon wise post GMGs for a little while. For several reasons one being that as petty as it may be, Minerva really needs the crud beat out of her. Another is that I haven't gotten that far in FT.**

**Guest - Yes it's the moment we've all been waiting for.**

**Guest - LOL XD. OK calm yourself here's more.**

**Guest - TADA!**

**Something - Thank you, I'm glad you think so! And no none of the OP characters will be post time skip, Luffy hasn't left his home yet in the OP world.**

**Erza Prophet - Thank you? I'm sorry that sounds like it hurts.**

**MarTinez9 - I know cliff hangers are just the WORST aren't they?**

**kwerli - Mmmmmaaaaayyyybbbee. **

**XJustified - Ha not gonna lie your comment made me giggle a little.**

**Daxen123 - Out of curiosity how far in OP are you, like which chapter/episode? Cause depending on where you are, there could be some big spoilers ahead. Just a heads up.**

**Melissabear - I'm crying tears of joy thank you so much!**

**MsWildLuck - I aim to please.**

**TheBlackSeaReaper - Why thank you good sir!**

**OnePieceFan2 - Ah I'm glad you saw what I was trying to go for there! Yes Lucy is about to go through interesting times to get to her goal. I almost feel bad for Minerva. She has no idea the can of whoop ass that is about to be unleashed on her. Gotta say I enjoyed writing about it a little too much.**

**REALLY IMPORTANT! DON'T SKIP THIS! Ok I said it last chapter but I'll say it again. This story takes three years _before _Luffy's little adventure to become pirate king. As for the Fairy Tail side it's _after _the Grand Magic Games arc and is going to ignore everything canon wise after that. OK? ok.**

**Disclaimer: Seriously? You think if I owned this stuff I'd be wasting my time doing this?!**

**Awww you Gone and Done it Now!**

* * *

_"Contrary to popular belief, there is one thing faster than the speed of light; Chuck Norris' foot." - Someone on the Interweb_

* * *

Lucy hesitated for a second, heart pounding as Minerva's attack came rushing at her. Still she remained on her hands and knees not quiet believing the voice in her head wasn't her own. In her mind's eye though she saw the wooden door with the sun and seagull on it begin to shake and rumble as if something was trying to get through.

_Could it be..._

"LUCY!" At hearing the shout of an unknown spectator, the noise around the blonde came back in a sudden rush causing her to remember where she was and who she was fighting. It was then that Lucy noticed something bright coming from the corner of her eye, that something was the broken key in her hand.

Lucy's body reacted on it's own, her hand that held the key was quickly raised in front of her just before Minerva's powerful wave of magic impacted and screamed in a strained voice,

"OPEN!"

Gritting her teeth and wrapping her arms around her head to protect herself as much as she could Lucy prepared herself for the inevitable disappointment. There was no way she, Lucky Lucy Heartfilia was so lucky that a broken key fixed itself randomly just in time to save her. All the glowing and voices in her head were just the imaginings of a desperate blonde bimbo. Bracing herself for more pain the blonde finally let the tears that had been welling in her eyes to fall.

_'Again! I failed my nakama again! Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ stupid_!'_

And then the deafening roar of wind passing by surrounded her before silence swallowed the stadium. Finally realizing that her body wasn't wrought with pain and how the colosseum had stilled, Lucy carefully cracked her eyes open, hadn't realizing that she had closed them. At first the wizard's vision was completely blocked by the dust that had been kicked up, but it cleared and when it did Lucy was shocked to her core.

There standing before her one hand raised, was easily the tallest man she had ever seen, hell more like a giant than a man. A long white coat with gold tassels hung off the giant's shoulders and swirled around his ankles, the word justice imprinted on the back in bold black lettering. The rest of the man's body was covered in a yellow striped suit with a dark green collared shirt and pink tie underneath.

"Ooooooohhhh that pretty scary ya knoooooww." The giant drawled out slowly. Bringing his hand back down his side, the giant slowly turned around to Lucy who felt her heart leap into her throat.

_Wow look at the size of this guy. Maybe he'll actually look normal for once, maybe even handsome! Plus hopefully he won't have any weird personality traits like that playboy... _Lucy thought hopefully. Already she could see it. A tall, handsome spirit waiting to protect her with his life all the while awing jealous female enemies. And when he saved the day she and he would ride of into the sunset... _Ahhh..._

And then he turned around fully.

Lucy, to be honest wasn't sure to laugh or cry, simply because the man had one of the most ridiculous faces she had ever seen. And she had seen a lot. It wasn't that she trying to be mean by saying he was ugly, because he wasn't, it was just that he looked... well ridiculous. There was no other way to describe it. Maybe it was the expression that he had plastered on his face. His narrow eyes drooped down covered by gold aviators and full lips drew into a lazy open mouthed smile as he stared down at the busty blonde who remained on her knees. Yeah it was the expression. Though that combination of his nose and lips was pretty bad.

Oh Mavis he looked so... so...

_So stoned._

And he was staring at her. Oh that just made it worse. But he kept staring at the blonde on her knees.

And he stared, and stared, and stared...

And then suddenly the giant crouched down, still towering over the girl, and reached up causing everyone present to lean on the edge of there seats and...

"Wooooww, if I had known you were this cute I would have come sooner." The suited giant exclaimed lazily as he pinched and pulled at the startled Lucy's cheeks. Soon Lucy flushed brightly at the giant's _painful_ attentions, too shocked to react fully. The crowd around them were also in a dead silence, no one truly sure how to react. However a hesitant voice spluttered over the speakers breaking the awkward stalemate.

"L-Lucy of Fairy Tail was finally able to summon one her spirits!"

With that the coloseum erupted into a thundering roar of cheering drawing the giants attention away from the shell shocked blonde and to his surroundings.

"Hhhmmmm?" The male blinked dumbly with his mouth hanging open until he heard shouting coming off to his left once again drawing his.

"Come on Luce kick some Sabertooth ass!"

"Go Lucy!"

"Don't just sit there Blondie get your ass into gear!"

"Show them what your made of!"

"You can do it Lu-chan!"

"Kick her ass bunny girl!"

"Everyone..." Lucy whispered, tears of joy now falling at her guild's support. The celestial wizard couldn't stop the grateful smile that formed on her face (though with great difficulty as the giants long fingers were still pinching her face, thankfully, however, they stopped their pulling).

"Ohhhh that was is it! Your name's Luuuucy right? Ahhh such a pretty name for an even prettier girl!" The giant in front if her grinned lazily.

Just when she thought her face couldn't burn anymore her body went and proved her wrong.

The giant seemed unfazed by Lucy's silence as he contented himself with just staring at her. Lucy too took this time to study him taking in all his features while he so close. Yes she wasn't wrong in saying that he wasn't ugly, just humorous looking features that reminded Lucy of cartoon characters. Though she did have to admit his five o'clock shadow and side burns combined with tan skin did look rather distinguishing.

Their moment was interrupted though when another force of magic suddenly shoved the giant face first into Lucy.

...

"HEY! GET THE OFF LUCE!"

"DON'T TOUCH BLONDIE!"

"GET OFF LUCY YOU CREEP!"

"OH MAN SO NOT FAIR!"

Were the roars of anger that echoed from her guild. Lucy had fallen on her butt with her palms on the ground behind her to keep her from falling any farther. Her legs were bent and spread out wide in front of her with the giant on his knees in between them. Then right smack in the copious amount of Lucy's cleavage was the giant's face. Completely engulfed in Lucy's chest the giant mumbled something and the blonde could literally _feel _the giant grinning.

Finally since she first summoned him Lucy reacted, shoving him off of her violently, screeching "p-perv" before hugging herself, feeling thoroughly violated. The giant, now sitting on his rump, had the most lecherous grin on his face totally ignoring the way his sun glasses were askew on his face.

"Oooooo why'd you mooooveeee? It was such a nice viewww~". The man slurred like a drunk.

"Wah!? B-B-Because we're in the middle of a fight!" Lucy screeched pointing to where Minerva stood, looking smug, with her hands on her hips.

"Hmm. Ohhhhh that's rightttt~." The giant once again stood and again shocked everyone with his massive height. Adjusting his glass back into place, Lucy felt a shock go through her system as the giant transformed right before her eyes.

It was nothing too obvious and she was sure that had she not been so close to him she wouldn't have noticed the change. But she was close, so she saw the subtle way of how his eyes became a little more malicious, how the smile on his face became a little more devilish, how his lazy posture seemed to tense in excitement.

The giant turned around and looked over his shoulder at the blonde.

"Soooo that woman is the one you were talking about? The one who humiliated you?"

"Y-yeah." Lucy whispered looking down, shamed. The giant stood in silence gazing down at the blonde who looked like a kicked puppy. Finally he turned back around to face his new opponent, assessing her.

"Oookay. You just take a breather Lucy-channnn! This looks like it'll be relaxing."

Lucy just blinked dazed that anyone in their right mind would call a fight with Minerva Orlando _relaxing_. Just how powerful was this guy? He came from a silver key so there was no way that could be _that _strong, right?

_Right?!_

Still stunned she watched the giant walk forward. Feeling the need to say something though Lucy blurted out, "Wait!"

"Hmmmm?" The giant hummed glancing back over his shoulder.

"I-I don't even even know your name." Lucy blushed for the thousandth time that day. Honestly out of all the things she could have said that had to be it!? 'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid-'

"Ahh everyone calls me Kizaru, but I really hate it when people call me that ya knooowww? So you can just call me Borsalino. Kkkkk?" He responded with an easy grin. Lucy in return paused before beaming at Borsalino, unsure why she did but just feeling that it was right to do so. This seemed to satisfy Borsalino as he turned back around to face down the angry looking Minerva. Probably still ticked off about the _relaxing _comment.

The crowd was in complete silence as the two stared long and hard at each other, both trying to assess their opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Kizaru stood at one end hands shoved in his pockets leaning heavily on one leg with his head titled to the side and looking as though he was struggling to stay awake. On the other side Minerva had her arms crosses underneath her chest nose high and looking as though she was queen of the universe.

"Well worm, how about you just save us both time and energy and step aside so I can wipe that pathetic fairy from existence." Minerva demanded arrogantly. Kizaru blinked slowly in response titling his head to the other side in question. Behind him, Kizaru could feel Lucy tense.

"Oooohh? Your confidence is really scary~! Maybe this won't be as relaxing as I thought it was gonna beeee..."

"You sound a little too cock sure of yourself worm. You have no idea how powerful I am."

"That's truuuue. But it doesn't really matter how powerful you are when you're going against me~!" Kizaru chuckled.

"You'll regret those words, worm!"

"Ohhhh? You think sooooooo?"

Kizaru brought his arms up in front of him making a circular shape with them.

"Yata no Kagami." With that light began to pool in between his hands and then shot out towards Minerva, the tall man disappearing from everyone's sight. The light came to a sudden halt right in front of Saber Tooth wizard and reformed into Kizaru, barely giving anyone enough time to comprehend what was happening. One long leg was engulfed in a blinding gold light that flew straight at Minerva's surprised face, who could do nothing more than let her eyes widen in horror as danger rushed at her face. Time seemed to slow down in the last few moments before the foot soaring at her at a break neck speed connected with her jaw.

A shock wave and boom followed the hit and faster than anyone could keep track of Minerva went flying through the air and crashed into the ground. The crowd screamed as rumble erupted from the ground where Minerva crashed but no one truly paid attention to that, their focus was solely on the man who caused it. Borsalino was crouched like a fierce predator his lips drawn into a tight smile and eyes narrowed in malicious glee, his long jacket bellowed behind him. No words could describe how terrifying the image was.

Slowly the tall man straightened as the dust faded away and began to slowly stalk towards his prey were she lay in the crater that had formed on her impact, shivering and gasping for breathe. Multitudes of cuts and scrapes covered her body, blood seeped from her nose and mouth, her clothes nearly torn to shreds and her entire jaw was swollen and bent an sicking angle. The admiral stopped at her feet and bent over her, his large frame blocking out the sun from Minerva's vision. The woman's shallow breathing caught in her throat and her eyes narrowed in hatred. A large hand was brought down to clasp painfully tight on top of Minerva's head, and easily lifted the struggling woman from the ground to dangle in the air in front of the fearsome man. Attempting to kick the tall man but only succeeding in looking like a fish out of water the Orlando woman spat and cursed at the amused giant, who seemed to have no trouble holding her.

"My, that's a really dirrrrrtttyy mouth you've got on you, eh?" Borsalino mocked. Her eyes widened in a mixture of fear and anger and small hands gripped at his wrist tightly. His smile only seemed to widened as he brought his other hand up to her face planting his index finger in the middle of her forehead. The finger began to glow ominously and Minerva knew that if she didn't do something soon...

DING DING DING!

"AND THAT'S THE TIMER! THE MATCH IS A DRAW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BETWEEN MINERVA ORLANDO AND LUCY HEARTFILIA!"

Gazing around with a confused expression Kizaru watched as confetti blurred out the bleak gray stones of structure around him. His attention was then transferred to a small pumpkin man when he came rushing out towards where Kizaru was still clutching Minerva. The short man looked ridiculously tiny compared to the admiral and he couldn't help the upward twitch of his lips as the tiny person waved his arms frantically.

"U-um the match is over so if you please don't mind letting miss Orlando go and collecting you mistress so the next match can start that would be wonderful, pum~."

"Match? You mean like a game?"

"Well yes. These are the Grand Magic Games, you know where wizards come to compete to test their mettle against each other?"

"Soooo... does that mean I'm not supposed to kill her?" Kizaru could hear Minerva's breathing hitch in fear when she realized how close to death she had just come. This also seemed to startle the little pumpkin man as he shook his head so hard Kizaru feared it would come flying off.

"N-no of course not! At least not intentionally... Anyway if you wouldn't mind..."

Borsalino's gaze fell back on to the wounded Minerva and from the corner of his eye he could see a blonde and green haired man come rushing towards them. Focusing back on the woman he let his hand cinch around her head harshly for a moment before smiling and dropping her unceremoniously on the ground. He then spun on his heel and began to tread back towards Lucy.

The poor girl was shaking harshly at what she had just seen, unbelieving of what had just happened. A spirit from a silver key had just obliterated Minerva with one hit. Make no mistake there was no way the woman would have been able to continue fighting after taking a hit like that.

_'Who is this guy?!'_

Lucy decided to take the smart route and ignore the problem for now. She would think about it later, right now she didn't need a headache on top of everything else.

When Kizaru reached the terrified Lucy he studied her body, taking note of the bruises that were starting to bloom on her face. A deepening black fanned across her jaw, her eye was already beginning to swell shut, and there was a nasty looking on bump on the back of her head. Letting his eyes drift further down he continued his assessment seeing more swelling on her wrist and how a bruise wrapped around it like a shackle. This most worrisome signs of injuries though was not on her skin but the faint rattling noise that Kizaru's acute hearing picked up on with every breathe she took. The girl would definitely have to be checked out by a doctor.

"Lucy-chaaaann, do you think you can stand?"

"Umm, I don't know..." Lucy carefully used her hand that wasn't injured to push herself up. Through great pain and effort Lucy was able to stand up but at the cost of being hunched over. A second later though and she was collapsing from the pain and dizziness. Thankfully however a long pair of arms caught her, one smoothly going around her shoulders and the other gently pulled her legs out from under her. Loosing her equilibrium Lucy threw her arms around the closet steady thing, that thing being the giant's neck. The arms adjusted the blonde to a more comfortable position and then brought her closer to his body.

Lucy again blushed but didn't complain, silently thankful that she wouldn't have to face the embarrassment of asking him to carry her.

"Where can you get those wounds looked at?"

"Polyussica-sama and Wendy can heal them. You have to go through there and then take a right." Lucy weakly lifted her hand and pointed at the tunnel where no doubt Natsu and the rest of her friends were coming from to greet her.

Without a word the giant of a man began to trek towards the opening she had pointed out. He moved slowly but his long legs quickly ate up the ground beneath them. Lucy could feel a cold sweat forming on her skin from the pain now that the adrenaline was beginning to fade away. Trying to distract herself from the pain she instead focused on the warmth the emitting from her newest spirit. Unlike Natsu's all consuming, Borsalino's flowed out in easy waves just as lazy as as the man it came from. The calm warmth with the steady thumping heart beat in her ear and slow rise and fall of the man's chest were successful in distracting her from the pain. In fact if it wasn't for the pain haunting the back of her mind then she was sure she would be well on her way to sleep.

Soon the dull thuds of Kizaru's shoes against sand was replaced with clicking against marble. Lucy, even with the spirits heat, shivered at the sharp temperature drop as they entered the shade of the tunnel. Their relative silence however was interrupted by a gentle humming noise thrumming it's way through the chest next to her head. Surprised Lucy looked up at the humming Kizaru's face. Blinking the wizard listened carefully, watching his calm face. Even though she didn't know the song it was obvious that he was completely off tune and she had a feeling that his voice when actually singing was nothing to be desired. Unsurprisingly though the humming admiral didn't seem to care how bad his humming was just so long as he enjoyed doing it. He seemed to notice the blonde's staring though as drifted down to gaze at her, his eyebrows raising in amusement and questioning.

"Hmm?" He hummed in questioning after cutting himself off.

Blushing at being caught staring, Lucy quickly tore her gaze away from him and down to her lap. Using her unbroken hand she fiddled with the hem of her skirt nervously.

"I, uh was just wondering what that song you were humming was?"

Surprise crossed Borsalino's face but was quickly replaced with amusement. He grinned down at the petite girl his eyes squinting at how big his grin was.

"Ne, Lucy-chaaaan you sure are nervous. Why is that I wonder?" Suddenly his expression into one of fake realization.

"Ooohhhh! Could it be... that... Lucy-chan liiiiiiikes me?"

"WH-WHAT!? NO WAY!" Lucy, ignoring the the pain for a moment as she jolted waving her arms.

"Ahhh, Lucy-chan~! It's OK many fall for my charms~!" He teased winking at her enjoying how her blushed increased even more.

"Somehow, I seriously doubt that..." Lucy mumbled off to the side. She found herself startled though when Kizaru began to chuckle at her reaction, but relieved that he didn't take offense to her joke. She didn't think there would be anyone able to stop him if he wanted to hurt her.

"It's just an old marine song." Borsalino suddenly explained.

"What?" Lucy dumbly, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic. Kizaru in turn couldn't help the small twitch that played at the corner of his lips at the cute expression on her face.

"You were wondering what the song was riiiiiight?"

"O-oh! Yeah!"

"Well it's just a song that some marines came up with a long time ago. Waaaay before my time."

"What are Marines? Are they a species of spirits, like Nicola?"

Her questioning caused Kizaru to tilt his head confusedly, his eyes blinking in a dazed way and mouth hanging open in slight shock.

"Why are you looking at me like I'm crazy?" Lucy questioned hesitantly.

"What do you mean spirits? Marines are just soldiers of the navyyyy."

"But your a spirit aren't you? You came from the celestial world! How else were you able to perform such powerful magic?!"

"Ehhhh? The celestial world, spirits, magic? I've no idea what or where the celestial world is, I'm just a normal human being, and I've never heard of anyone using magic except in fairy tales. That stuff was just me using my devil fruit."

"What?! But that's impossible! I mean if you didn't come from the celestial world then where did you come from?!" Horrible thoughts ran through her head as she imagined all sorts of terrible deaths by the hands of this strange man.

"Oooooh I don't knooowww." He replied nonchalantly.

"How can you sound so chill about this!? This is serious!" Lucy screeched.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out. Besides it just means I'll get to spend more time with a pretty laaaaadddyyy!"

Before Lucy could retort, a loud thundering sound echoed through the tunnel. A jumble of voices echoed around the pair and Lucy felt her mouth twitch up wards as the troublesome trio of team Nastu came barreling around the corner, Happy soaring right behind them. Gray and Natsu, unsurprisingly, had turned their mad dash to her into a competition to reach Lucy first. Both of them were neck and neck but shoving against each other and bellowing insults while screaming at Lucy to ask if she was alright.

Suddenly both of them we're ran over by Erza who came barreling towards Lucy and her new 'spirit'... Thingy.

She felt the man holding her jerk to a stop in surprise at the red headed monstrosity that was rapidly approaching him and the small blonde in his arms. Lucy's eyes widened horror as Erza continued to rush towards them showing no signs of stopping.

Finally Erza seemed to realize that she was coming in too fast and attempted stop her self but it was too late, as she slide straight through Lucy and Kizaru.

All movement came to a still as Natsu, Happy, Gray, and Erza turned to look in shock at the confused pair. Lucy blinked slowly looking at the space where Erza and then down to where she had seen Erza pass through her and Kizaru. Leaning back to look around Kizaru at Erza who seemed just as confused as Lucy herself.

Looking back up to Borsalino for an explanation, the man simply shrugged.

"My devil fruit."

"What's a devil fruit?" Erza demanded. The suited man was silent for a moment and looked to be deep in thought and appeared to be trying to chose his next words carefully.

"Hmm, I think that's an discussion another time. For now I think it best to get Lucy-chan fixed up." Kizaru said. Erza jumped and turned to Lucy a strange fire in her eyes.

"Lucy! Forgive me! I forgot about your condition and became caught up in my own concerns!" Lucy grimaced and waved her hands in front of her trying to keep Erza from groveling.

"I-It's fine!"

"Hey dude. Polyussica and Wendy are this way." Gray nodded his head behind him and turned to lead the amused admiral. Following Kizaru watched as a pink haired boy and flying cat fell in step beside him on his left and the scary red head on his right. The admiral opted to be silent in order to observe the strange people around him, figuring that it would be the best option for now.

"How are you feeling?" The re-quip mage questioned her blonde friend.

"Fine. A little sore but nothing too horrible."

"Fine!? You totally just kicked Minerva's ass! It was awesome!" Natsu exclaimed fist pumping into the air.

"O-oh I don't know about that. I really didn't do anything! It was all Borsalino here." Lucy responded modestly.

"But Lushy! You held your own against her so well, even before you summoned him!" Happy added his two cents.

"W-well-"

"Yes, you've improved greatly over the last year. And besides I thought spirits were only as powerful as you were? Following that logic, you did beat Minerva not just your spirit." Erza interjected.

"Yeah but-"

"Oh that's right! When did you get that spirit anyway? I don't remember you using him before." Happy wondered out loud

"He's from that new key I-"

"You mean the silver key but I thought you said it was broken?"

"Yes, well-"

"Oh who cares Erza!? All I care about is how strong he is! Luce ya gotta let me fight him sometime!"

"That's not really for me to decide, Natsu..."

"Well!? How about it!? You'll fight me right!?" Natsu turned to Borsalino, who looked completely amused and the team's interaction. Now that the questioning was turned onto him however he was surprised. How crazy was this kid, wanting to fight him, an admiral?

Kizaru liked him. He was funny.

"How stupid can you be, Natsu? Didn't you just see what he did to Minerva? The guy creamed her with one hit and you think that you can go toe to toe with him? HA!" Gray reprimanded over his shoulder. Natsu snapped his head back to where the ice make wizard was walking ahead of them and clenched his fist.

"What did you just say, pervert!?"

"Natsu. Gray." Erza growled.

"So strangggeee." Kizaru mumbled and Lucy sighed hopelessly.

"This is tamed compared to what they usually do." Lucy mumbled exasperatedly causing Kizaru to chuckle.

"They must be a hand full."

"You have no idea."

"Lucy-san!" The group looked up see Wendy standing in the door way to Fairy Tail's infirmary, a worried look on her face and Polyussica standing behind her. The pink haired woman waved her hand gesturing towards Kizaru to bring Lucy into the room. Swiftly he silently obeyed the stern looking woman as he pushed his way past the people blocking the door way.

Entering the room Kizaru carefully laid his young charge out on the bed surprising her with how gentle he was being. Lucy safely on the bed, Borsalino leaned back up to tower over the blonde making her feel like young child. He was quickly shoved aside by an angry looking Polyussica and worried looking Wendy. Seeing that he was more of a hindrance than help he took the unclaimed seat in the corner, leaned back and crossed his legs. Watching the bustle that was Lucy's friends with amusement he chuckled when the strange pink haired woman batted them away with a broom and screeching something about how annoying they were.

Polyussica however obviously didn't think it was as nearly as funny, if the scathing glare she sent his way was anything to go by.

"And you! You shouldn't be laughing! You certainly took your sweet time getting here!" The pink haired woman snapped.

"Oh?" Borsalino chuckled, entertained that some old woman was fussing at him, an admiral.

"Bah never mind that now it's time for you to go home. Holding open your gate is just draining Heartfilia's magic and that is just a wasting her energy. Which she needs! So shoo!" She even made the motions.

"Oooh but I don't know how to go hoooome. Besides I'm in no rush, I wanna look around for a little while."

"What kind of stupid spirit are you!"

"Heeey don't call me stupid! Old woman..."

"You're no spring chicken yourself! Dumb fool!"

"Oi, oi you really ne-"

"Please Borsalino. Don't fight with Polyussica-sama." Lucy said gently, trying to stop the fight before it started. And to save her from the potential head ache.

"Fiiiiiineee. But I still don't know how to get home." Kizaru sighed.

"Don't worry I can do that. I think..." She mumbled the last part hoping to not worry the spirit. It seemed he heard her though because he raised his eyebrow at her and she in turned laughed nervously. Kizaru stood up and dusted off invisible dirt of the suit.

"Allllriiiiight. Send me home then. We'll talk later okaaaayy?"

Lucy nodded and focused her magic in closing the door, the room glowed as light covered Kizaru and he let out 'ooooo' before he faded away. With Kizaru now gone Lucy let herself fall back into the soft pillows behind her watching as Polyussica corralled her team out of the room. The door clicked shut behind them and Lucy watched as Wendy placed something in her hand. Gazing down she saw two pills.

"They're sleeping pills. So it won't hurt when we're healing you." Wendy explained as she handed Lucy a cup of water. Nodding her thanks the celestial wizard downed the two pills and then snuggled back down into the mattress waiting for sleep to take.

"Rest now girl. By the time your awake you'll be as good as new." Polyussica said sternly.

Content that she would be well taken care of the blonde shut her eyes and let sleep drift her away.

* * *

**Again really sorry for the long wait. Stupid laziness and weird muse. Well here it is the next chapter! So? Yay, nay, maybe so? Wonderful, horrible, or just meh? Grammar mistakes? Anything need improvement? Misspelling? Anyone out of ****character? Seriously that's like my biggest fear. Especially with Kizaru. **

**Remember I won't know what's wrong unless you tell me. And reviews make me happy.**


	4. That Awkward Moment

**AN; Thank you all for taking time out of your days and gracing my story with your eyes, reviews and love! Really, y'all have no idea how happy I am every time I see a new review. And it helps with the inspiration too! Ah I'm so happy I could cry, oh look I am.**

**coolman - Thank you man! You made my day.**

**OZ x OZ - Yep I'm aware that Minny is apart of Tartartos but I'm pushing everything canon in FT after the GMGs back a year so she'll still end up being part of Tartaros. And don't worry I've got a few solutions that will keep Kizaru his normal OP self but give everyone in Fairy Tail a fighting chance. Maybe. Kinda. Hopefully. And thanks for taking the time to read!**

**Winky Keaton - First thank you for the suggestions, they will definitely and seriously be taken into consideration and even if they don't become keys they'll fer sure be in the story. Also thank you for the match up fights those will be incredibly useful, and Laxus vs Kizaru will happen. And yes I've seen Akainu with his beard, I think it looks good on him, makes him look younger. Secondly thank you for the fighting techniques of the Admirals! That's going to save me a whole lot of time and trouble. That was very nice of you!**

**MrDarth151 - You and me both! I freaking love the Admirals, and Kizaru's my favorite, hell he's my favorite character in on piece period. He's such a troll! And I'm so happy that you think he's well written! I would hate to shout about how much I love him and then totally screw up his character. Hopefully I can keep it up. Really your comment makes me so happy! Thank you!**

**deathshade37 - Thank you!**

**GoodGuy - lol I'm flattered that you think so. Ahh Man I can't get enough of crack, but I hadn't really plan on having any romance in this story as I find I'm not a very good romance writer. LOVE reading it but writing, I'm like an awkward turtle. However there will be some pretty fluffy moments that I guess if you squint can see some romance in. But for this story Kizaru and Lucy will be just friends! Sorry!**

**Lightningblade49 - I was a little worried that I made it to short and originally I had this whole struggle planned out but then I thought 'Whoa this is an _Admiral,_ Minerva would never be able to keep up with him.'**

**Cyricist001 - Gosh your name caused me so many issues trying to write it, lol! Thank yoooooouu! I'm glad you think so XD!**

**milleniumclone45 - Thank you! It makes me immensely happy that your expectations were fulfilled and even happier that you got chuckles from him. Yeah I never realized how tricky dialogue is, especially when you're trying to keep characters in character. Can't tell you how long it takes me to read over scenes with talking in it and debate over whether or not a character would say something like that. That's probably my bad that I didn't make that clearer. Yes it was just him, Minny and Mato around to hear that. And don't worry there will be issues with Kizaru wanting to kill people down the line, as Fairy Tail seems to be against killing most of the time.**

**MsWildLuck - Thank you!**

**RisingNight - Oh Lord Jesus! You have just given me a wonderful idea! Oh my God I had this one scene planned out but that suggestion... Oh God you! You're a wonderful person! The only downside is that it be won't for a while so I hope you can bear with me! But that! It will definitely happen!**

**Daxen123 - Ah it's no biggie! OK good, I would've hated that you read this and then have something spoiled or for you to be totally lost. But if your at Fishman Island then you should be good. I love Kizaru I can not lie. I'm hoping that he'll get more screen time, he's such an enjoyable character to watch. And I hope I can do his character justice with this story.**

**xlunatica - Yes I think I went out on limb there but I always felt Kizaru would be a pervert to some extent. I think it's his face. Ah I see what you mean I'll go back and try to make it clearer that he's simply taller than the folks in FT. And for the Logia bit that was totally my bad, I completely forgot that it only affects the user and no one else. I'll go back and fix that too. For the name part Kizaru has always come off as a little... unorthodox when it comes to his professionalism, for instance when he takes out the mangrove tree by accident or when he doesn't seem to care Luffy and Jinbei get away after Marineford. So I figured he'd be the kind of guy that would hate to go by titles or at the very least not enjoy being called a 'Yellow Monkey' by someone who's not his underling. Perhaps though I took too much liberty in his character and if you think so I'll go back and try fix it. I'm so happy that you liked his door. I was very proud of myself when I came up with the part. And I'm so glad your still reading the story despite my blundering!**

**TheBlackSeaReaper - Oh thank God. I was really afraid that Kizaru would be OOC, and I kinda feel like I'm taking a lot of liberties with his character. But I'm very happy that you think he was in character.**

**icefox94 - Don't you just love it when that happens? I think most people are more for the pirates. It would most certainly be interesting wouldn't it. Oh having three admirals, I don't think Lucy could survive it. I almost feel bad for Akainu I don't think he realized that worse thing he would have to face was not Whitebeard but a horde of angry Ace fan girls when he killed Ace. No one could fight that. And as for the Ace bit you'll just have to wait and see, I wouldn't want to spoil the fun for you.**

**On Soaring Wings - I'm so happy that you think so!**

**Xjustified - Yay free stuff!**

**Disclaimer: Any and all recognizable characters/reference/dialogue/items/music/etc. and other crap... probably ain't mine.**

**That Awkward Moment**

* * *

_"That awkward moment when you get in the van and there's no candy." - Someone on the Interweb _

* * *

Lucy sat in a stiff wooden chair in the Master's office twiddling her thumbs as she waited for Makarov to finish his study of the key. Off to the side, Loke leaned against the wall of Makarov's office an unreadable expression on his face with his arms crossed. On the bookshelf next to him was the 'young' Master Mavis, swinging her feet and rocking side to side a small and mischievous smile on her face as she gazed back and forth between the key and Lucy.

It had been three days since the end of the Grand Magic Games, with Fairy Tail coming out on top, closely followed by Saber Tooth and Blue Pegasus. For the entire period of the Games Lucy had been bed ridden, partly because Polyussica wanted to be completely sure that her injuries had healed and also because Lucy was afraid that if was cleared OK she would have to fight again. And at the time that had been something she desperately wanted to avoid until she had more answers concerning the... problem.

For the entire time the guild was Cocrus, Lucy had avoided any mention of The Problem like it was the plague. Even when Natsu had desperately pleaded for Lucy too summon The Problem to fight, she steadfastly would change the subject to how well kept the marbles of the coloseum were until Natsu either gave up or something else distracted him. The rest of her friends though at first curious about the powerful new Problem, seemed to catch the drift that Lucy didn't want to think about It at the time and so mercifully didn't question her about it. Though Lucy did notice the furtive glances they would send to her keys from time to time.

Really she couldn't blame them, she was sure if one of them pulled some all powerful spell out from their butts then she would be curious too. However no matter how hard she tried Lucy simply did not want to think about The Problem. When she had been in bed that first night, Wendy sleeping on the bed next to her, and left with her own thoughts, a horrible realization had set in. That... _person, _not spirit but a _person, _had demonstrated power that could easily go toe to toe with Erza or Natsu. Maybe even Laxus. But there was no way... Erza was right in saying that spirits were limited by their wizard's strength, and Lucy was no where near that level.

And The Problem said he didn't even use magic! That it was his "devil fruit." What the hell was that anyway? Was it common where he came from?

Where did he come from? He said he hadn't even heard of the Celestial World, so did that mean he was from her world? But then he said he had never even heard of magic being used in real life, so did that mean... that he wasn't from her world? But if he didn't come from the Celestial World or the human world then where the heck did he come from? Edolas, maybe? Or was he a demon and just lying about being a human so he could eat her soul? Or was he telling the truth and honestly was as clueless as her? Were all of his kind so powerful? Or was he just an exception? How did he become connected to a key? Why didn't come to her summons until she was fighting Minerva? What was he like? Was he kind, smart, funny, and helpful? Or was he cruel, sadistic, evil, and mean? What was his favorite food? His favorite color? His hobbies?

Ohhh this was exactly the reason why she tried so hard not to think about The Problem. A whole lot of questions and not an answer in sight. So she decided to wait. Wait until the GMGs were done and over with, and they had returned home. The very fist thing she did, even before going home to unpack, was to head straight to the magic store that she had bought the key from. Only to find that, low and behold the crazy old coot had up and left town, conveniently while Lucy was away. To say Lucy had been mad would have been an understatement, the blonde had been furious, and crazy frustrated. Up to the point were she began to cry and the poor new store clerk had been forced to deal with a nineteen year old having an emotional break down.

Lucy was willing to admit that it was not her greatest moment ever.

After that Lucy had refused to leave her apartment for two days straight, not willing to see anyone, even her spirits. Natsu had ended up being forced to come and collect her and bring her to Makarov. Thus leading to their current situation. Both Mavis and Makarov felt that it would be wisest to have one her to answer any questions they might have.

"I can't explain it." Loke started. The other three looked at him in question, waiting for him elaborate further.

"If it weren't for the fact that I've never seen this key before and what you just told me I would think it's a normal key. There's nothing wrong with it."

"Hmm how strange. I'm not sure what to say though, I've had little to no experience with celestial magic, but what I do know is that whatever spirit or whatever that key summons it could be potentially very dangerous so we have to be very careful with how we go from here." Makarov quipped placing key on his desk and pushing it towards Lucy.

"Loke are you sure. His door was so... strange. There has to be something that you can tell us?" Lucy questioned hopefully.

"I'm sorry Princess but there's nothing I can do. I can honestly say that there's nothing strange about it... but well maybe..."

"Yes?"

"It's faint, barely even noticeable and I could just be imagining things, but the air around it... it feels different."

"Different? What do you mean?" Makarov titled his head.

"It's like how the air in the spirit world seems to be clearer for me than here in the human world but the air around that key it's not that totally different from this world's... It just... tastes saltier I guess. There's no other way for me to describe it."

"Well either way that doesn't seem to terribly helpful. If anything it leaves us with even more questions." Makarov sighed.

He glanced up though, to look at the first Master who had been strangely quiet up to that point.

"What do you think first Master?" Loke and Lucy looked up helplessly at the girl, giving her their best puppy dog eyes.

"I think the only way you're going to figure anything out is by asking that new friend of yours, Lucy." Mavis giggled behind her hand. This prompted Lucy to gaze down at the surprise, surprise, glinting key. Did it ever not glint?

"Lucy you don't have to if you don't want to.." Loke placed his warm hand on her small shoulder, flashing her a smile.

Shaking her head, her eyes glinted with determination and grip tightened on the key.

"No, I think Master Mavis is right. Besides I'll never get answers without him and I can kiss a descent night's rest goodbye with all those unanswered questions in my head. And anyway I don't think he has any reason to hurt us, at least he hasn't given any signs that he wants to." With those false bravado words, Lucy closed her eyes and focused her magic to bring her to Borsalino's door. The door seemed innocent enough but for some reason Lucy couldn't stop the redemption that she felt as she got 'closer' to it. Stopping a few feet away from the door, Lucy took a deep breathe.

_"Borsalino? Um it's me Lucy. I was wondering if we could have that talk now? If your free that is." _Not more than a few seconds later did Borsalino's voice echo through her head.

_"Oh! Lucy-chan! It's certainly been a while, I was beginning to think that you weren't gonna caaaaall. Just give me a second, 'kaaayy?"_

_"Okay."_

Lucy waited patiently waited for a minute, before she heard Kizaru give the all clear to summon him. Using her magic she 'opened' the door that was his gate and watched it open to a crack before she brought herself back to the real world. Opening her eyes she watched as Kizaru appeared and how Makarov and Loke immediately tensed up, while Mavis 'oohed' in wonder. The tall man blinked slowly a couple of times and then glanced at Lucy who he grinned and waved at. Lucy felt a little relieved at the seemingly friendly gesture but was still on edge about how he would react to their questioning. She observed carefully as Kizaru took in his surroundings cautiously, before bringing his gaze to rest on the other three people in the room.

The first one Kizaru observed, was well dressed and had some the spikiest hair he had ever seen and dark shades that covered intense eyes which glared mistrustfully at him. If Kizaru didn't know any better he would've sworn that the man was a member of the Cipher Pol. Finished with his assessment of the CP member Kizaru moved on to the other man. The first thing Kizaru noticed about the old man was that he must have some form of leadership over the other three as he not only had a large desk filled to the brim with paper work (and Kizaru pitied any man with that much) but also seemed to ooze authority. But not in way that Sengoku did, more like a... fatherly sort of way. The second thing he noticed was that the man had one of the most incredible mustaches Borsalino had ever seen. The old man was also ridiculously short, and not just compared to Kizaru but even to Lucy. The poor guy really must have shrank with old age, because he couldn't imagine being that short his whole life. This man also seemed to be wary of Borslino if his furrowed eyebrows and heavy frown were anything to go by.

In fact the only person in the room who didn't seem tensed by his presence was the young looking girl who sat on the book shelf with long blonde hair and wing looking things coming out from head. How strange.

His assessment finished, Kizaru placed himself in the chair next to the amusing blonde that was Lucy and stretched out, his long legs crossing and placed his hands to rest on his lap. Settled he looked to the blonde on his right to start. It took her a second but jumped when she realized that she was supposed to go.

"Right so, um, Borsalino the man standing is one of my spirits; Leo the Lion, but we all call him Loke. The man sitting at the desk is the third and sixth Master of Fairy Tail; Makarov Dreyar. And last but not least, the one sitting on the bookshelf is the fist master and founder of Fairy Tail; Mavis Vermillion. Everyone this Kizaru, also know as Borsalino." Lucy introduced.

"Hello Borsalino! It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure you and Lucy will go on many fun adventures together!" Mavis greeted warmly.

Kizaru raised an eyebrow at how warmly the supposed first master had greeted him but none the less smiled and nodded his head at her. The blonde sensing from the other Fairy Tail members that she should take the lead on this started.

"So Borsalino, I figured that before we do anything that we should first figure out where you come from. To do that I think it would be easiest to ask you simple yes or no questions and then we'll go from there. Sound good?" Lucy questioned. Receiving a nod from the man she began her questioning.

"Ok first off, you have no magic in your world?"

"Not that IIIIII've seen."

"Do the names Fiore, Seven, Enca, Ministrel, Stella, Joya, Iceberg, Sin, Bosco, Caelum, Bellum, Midi, Desierto, or Pergrande mean anything to you?"

"Nope!"

"What about Earthland?"

"Nada!"

"Edolas?"

"Nuhuh."

"Have you heard of the Magic council or Ruin Knights?"

"Nooooooo."

"I see... Would you mind describing your world? Like land marks or famous people, you know common everyday knowledge."

"Hmmm, well there's the old world and new world. The East, West, North and South Blue. The Grand line and The Red Line. The world is run by the World Government, there are devil fruits and sea kings, Schibukai and Yonko, marines and pirates. Looooots and looooooots of pirates. Generally everyone knows that, at least from my world." Lucy nodded and looked over to Master Makarov, who looked more than a little concerned as he let that information sink in. Loke too had a heavy frown on his face when the blonde glanced over at him, and Master Mavis just looked at Kizaru in wonder.

"Loke?" Lucy intoned gently because surely if anyone knew where Kizaru is from then it would be an immortal celestial spirit.

"I-I don't know of any place that he just described. He's definitely not from the Celestial world or the human one but... I don't think he's a demon either."

"Oh-hoooo! You thought I was a demon? Is it because of my devilishly good looks Lucy-chaaaaan?" He chuckled leaning into her personal space.

"T-this is serious!"

"Oh yes my looks are seriously good looking!"

"Would you please stop?!"

"Ahhh Lucy-chan, I'm sorry, I can't help that I was born this good looking!"

"Oh God help me..."

"What do you need help with Lucy-chaaaaan?"

"Ah-hum!" Kizaru's chuckling and Lucy's spluttering was cut off when Master Makarov cleared his throat. Out of the corner of Kizaru's eye he could make out a giggling Mavis and a glowering Loke.

_'Ohhh someones jeal-ouuuuuus~!'_

"If your done... It would seem that we were right in our guess that he's from another world entirely." Makarov said gravely studying Kizaru to see his reaction to the news. He watched as the flirty man's face flickered through an array of emotions going from confused to realization, weariness to acceptance, and finally mischievous and amused.

It was then that Makarov had a sinking feeling that this man would some how, some way give him one of the largest headaches he would ever feel.

"Is that sooooo... Then what do we now?"

"I think that's something you and Lucy need talk about." Mavis chirped jumping down from her perch while Makarov stood up. Kizaru could feel a shock go through his system as he saw short the man was. Was everyone in this world ridiculously short? Kizaru felt a shudder go through his system at the thought of living his entire life that short. Maybe it was something in the water...

The two masters shuffled to the door and out the room, just before the door shut though, Makarov turned back to the remaining three.

"We'll give you some time alone to talk about things. We're going to be waiting outside if you need anything." With that the door gently closed leaving the remaining people to their own devices. Kizaru turned to look at the two until his gaze finally settled on Loke.

"So you're a spirit? You don't look that special..." At this Loke's eye twitched and Lucy quickly jumped in before an argument broke out.

"Yes. Loke is a spirit from the Celestial World. The place that I thought you were from. He's one of the twelve golden keys. Well thirteen if you count Ophiuchus."

"Golden... keys?"

"Yes, these are Celestial Gate Keys. I use them to summon spirits who help me with a variety of things." Lucy lifted her key chain up to Kizaru and handed it to him although she warily watched him flick through them, like a mother who watched their baby be held by a friend. The tall man briefly studied each one taking in the designs and color of each until came to one with a familiar symbol. He thumbed the head of the key and then looked up to Lucy.

"This is how you brought me to your world?" Lucy nodded her head.

"Yes though your key is... a little strange."

"How soooo?"

"Well when I bought it was just so regular old key, but then I touched it and changed into that."

"Really? Hmmm when did you buy the key?"

"Oh ummmm about three weeks ago."

"Really? Hmm, that's strange."

"Why?"

"Because three weeks ago I bought this." He lifted his right and extend his pinkie away from the rest. There wrapped tightly around his long digit was a thick gold band and carved all around it's length were stars. Lucy felt her eyes widened in surprise as she jerked her head back to a grinning Kizaru.

"Did this ring happen to change when you touched it?"

"Yep!"

"What... What exactly did the person that sold you the ring look like?"

"Weeelll she was some old crotchety woman who was reeeaaally determined to get me to buy the thing. Had her hair in bun, was all wrinkly, really short, narrow eyes, pretty sure they were green. Said that I was destined to buy it. I went back to find her when I couldn't get it off but the damn woman had skipped town. I thought it was just some hoax but I don't think that's the case anymoooooore." Lucy leaned back into her chair with a disbelieving huff. She glanced back to Loke looking just as lost and helpless as she felt.

"Loke, have you ever heard of something happening like this?" She questioned desperately tired of dealing with question after question with nothing to show in the way of answers.

"I'm sorry Princess but... this is unheard of. Keys are only connected to spirits not to other objects, I would think it's because objects can be lost and if the wrong person finds them and then has the ability to traverse through worlds and could cause some serious problems. But you said you couldn't get it off?"

"That's riiiight. Damn thing is stuck on there good." Kizaru tugged at the ring for emphasis.

"OH! I know! Maybe Crux can tell us something!" Lucy looked back to Kizaru and who handed her keys back. She carefully selected the one she was looking for and pulled it out.

"Open! Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!" Borsalino open mouthed watched in fascination as stellar magic was preformed in front of him for the first time. The wizened man found it surprisingly beautiful as light and sparkles flooded the room to reveal a snoring cross. The cross, other than fact that he looked like a cross had the features of old human man. And he was floating in mid air. That was kinda weird too.

"Princess, how can I be of service?" Crux intoned.

"I was wondering if you could tell us anything you know about celestial keys being able to summon people from other worlds?"

"Very well, give me a second please."

...

"Ah Lucy-chan, I think he fell asleeeeep."

"Oh no, that's just Crux going through his archives. You see Crux is an informational spirit. He can tell you the answer to just about anything you wanna know."

"...It's kinda sad that you've hung around him so long that you know what his sleeping and information finding looks like. Kinda creepy toooooo!"

"Wha- No it's not!"

"Princess." Both man and woman snapped their head back to look at the floating cross eagerly waiting to see what the spirit had found.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to find anything." Loke barely stopped the snicker in time as watched Borsalino and Lucy simultaneously sink in their seats.

"Maaaan, that's such a let dooooown." Kizaru pouted.

"Tell me about it."

Taking pity on the both of them, well at least on Lucy that other guy not so much, Loke turned to Crux.

"What about objects connected to celestial keys? Specifically rings." Just as quickly as they sank, the human pair perked right back up and gazed hopefully at the floating cross. A few minutes passed as they all waited impatiently for his answer.

"Princess, I've found something."

"Really!?"

"Yes, there's not much on the subject but it seems to involve blood magic."

"Ooooohh that doesn't sound to goooood!"

"Not at all. It was band long ago during the time of Zeref and his followers. Apparently there had been a coven of witches that had heard of other realms and wished to gain access to them, and would preform rituals of blood magic and attempt to do so by joining celestial keys and another magical item." Crux responded.

"I'm confused when you say witches you mean wizards right?" Lucy asked titling her.

"No Princess, witches are said to be women who were cohorts with demons. There were very few that existed before Zeref's time but when he rose to power their numbers grew rapidly. However there still hasn't been any substantial information on them as they always conducted themselves in secret. The only thing truly known about them was that they were rabid followers of Zeref."

"Okaaaaay, I'm confused who's Zeref?"

"Zeref is said to be the most powerful dark wizard of all time. He's apparently created thousands of demons with the Black Arts that he's mastered and threw the world into chaos. And as far as we know has some how mastered aging as we encountered him during our S-class exams." Loke answered Kizaru.

"So it's this guy's followers that created the key and ring with blood magic? Do you think they could be dangeroooouuus?"

"It could be. But for now I sense nothing malevolent coming from either objects and since it seems that we don't have that much information I think the best thing to do now is to be careful at the least." Loke sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Thank you Crux you've been very helpful!" Lucy dismissed him and then stood in front of bewildered looking Borsalino, who was surprised at the blonde's suddenly cheerful attitude.

"If that's the case then there's little we can do for now. So I think the best way to proceed is to make a contract!"

"A... contract?" The Admiral question and leaned his head of to the side, his mouth hanging open slightly, observing the sprightly blonde.

"Yep! You see as a Celestial mage I make contracts with spirits. Contracts set guidelines of when they're available, what I can and can't call them out to do, or any special needs I have to meet in order to summon them, things like that. Spirits are living beings too ya know, and they lead lives just like you and I, so contracts are set in place so I don't abuse them whether it's intentionally or unintentionally. And I realize that your not a spirit but as Celestial wizard I promise to follow the contract just as rigidly as if you were!" Lucy placed a closed fist over her heart and nodded seriously not realizing how adorable she looked with her lip stuck out like that.

"And what if I don't want to make a contract with yooooouu?" Kizaru narrowed his eyes at her as the girl suddenly deflated with the most soul crushing look on worked it's way onto her pretty little face. Loke shifted from leaning to standing fully and the lion's shoulders tensed as a low growl echoed through the room.

"Then... I understand. I'm sure you have other things to do in your world and that it would be a pain for me to call on you randomly. I'll never bother you again, I promise." Lucy looked to the ground waiting for the rejection. However the tall man simply sat there studying her taking in every tick and twitch that crossed her face, how her soulful brown eyes seemed almost gold in the sunlight, every strand of blonde hair tucked neatly in place in pigtails, the slope and curves of her body, and the way she stood tensely waiting disappointment. In that moment Kizaru carefully weighed his options not truly comprehending how his next words would forever effect himself, the girl in front of him, and their worlds.

"I'm an Admiral so there'll be a lot of times where I'm busy, but I'll also be out at sea a lot with nothing to dooooooo. So I think it's best if you just call me and I'll see if I can come or not. You can use me in anyway you like, and I mean _anyway_." Kizaru leered at her, a playful smile decorating his face. Lucy either ignored or didn't notice the suggestive comment as she perked up like a flower in sunlight, a beaming expression on her face.

"Really!? You mean it?" She clasped her hands together in front of her and couldn't help as she leaned towards him hopefully. Borsalino couldn't help but let a deep throaty chuckle well up in his chest and found himself surprised when he smiled gently at that young woman.

"Suuuure! Why not? It gets long and boring on a boat out at sea. Lonely too and being around such a pretty young thing like yourself will help eeeeaase that loneliness." Kizaru wiggled his eyebrows suggestively also leaning in closer to her. He was incomprehensibly satisfied when he saw a pretty red blush spread across her cheeks and heard the deep growl come from his right. Still the young woman couldn't stop the cheek splitting grin that plastered itself on her face.

"So is there a kiss to seal the deeeaaalll?"

"N-no that's it."

"Reeeeallyyyy?"

"Yes."

"That's disappointing."

"...Why does everyone say that?"

Suddenly Kizaru rose from his seat nearly causing Lucy fall over at the movement. She leaned back to look up at Kizaru who looked down at her with a grin.

"Soooooo what's Fairy Tail?"

"Hmm? Oh! That's right you don't know anything about wizard guilds. You see Earthland is a place filled with magic that's used for the simplest of tasks or used professionally. Fiore, a country in Earthland, is a place that heavily uses magic and wizards live all around. So there are guilds which are, I guess you could say they're like clubs or organizations were wizards come together to find work, family, friends, and adventure. Fairy Tail, my guild, is one such place and the best if you ask me! Everyone here is so close and always there to support you, and there's never a dull day!" Lucy's eyes gained a far away look she spoke lovingly of her guild and Kizaru quickly found himself growing increasingly interested in meeting the rest of the wizard guild.

"Can I get a tour of the place?"

"Sure! I'm sure everyone's anxious to meet you as well. You certainly left an impression on them." It was true the minute she had stepped through the guild doors this morning all eyes had been on her until she went up stairs. It was obvious even to Natsu that she and the master were going to discuss her newest 'spirit' and she was sure that everyone down stairs would squirming in their seats waiting for the outcome.

"Woooow I feel like a famous celebrity!" Kizaru joked, of course in his world everyone wanted to get a glimpse of him, being a feared Admiral and all that, well not everyone, some just wanted to run the hell away. However he couldn't but smirk at the prospect of making his mark on this new world.

"Loke did you want to come too?" The spirit in question almost said yes but then a sudden thought struck him.

"Lucy how were you able to hold Crux's, mine, and Kizaru's gate open?" The blonde blinked in surprise and then gasped.

"Your right I didn't even realize it..."

"Are you not allowed to doooo that?"

"It's not that I'm not allowed, it's just that it's hard. Wizards only have so much magic they can use at a time before they deplete it and have to recharge. We refer to this as our magic levels and depending on your magic level there's only so much a wizard can do. Celestial gates are held open by my magic and I've gotten to the point where I'm able to hold two open at once but I've never held three open... but..." Lucy pinched her chin between her index finger and thumb in thought.

"Now that I think about it the only time when I ever feel my magic being used when I call you out Borsalino is when I open an close your gate."

"It must be blood magic stuff." Loke waved his hand in the air.

"Hmm ah well no use dwelling on it now. Time to meet all your frieeeends~!" The tall man gently gripped the crook of the girl's elbow and she found herself being dragged out by the lazy admiral.

Makarov and Mavis looked over as they heard the door open just in time to see Kizaru phase through the upper half of the door way while his lower half walked through normally, dragging Lucy with him and Loke glowering behind them.

"Well how did it go?" Makarov asked as the trio darted past the two masters. Lucy turned back to wave at them and giggled nervously.

"It went it good- Borsalino could you slow down, my legs aren't as long as yours- I'll tell you about it later." And with that the three disappeared around the corner to go down stairs where a thunder of voices drifted up. Kizaru slowed his pace and let Lucy go so she could take the lead as they began to walk down the stairs, the wood groaning at Borsalino's weight. When they reached the bottom Lucy stopped and looked up at Borsalino and gestured to her nakama.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" The Admiral looked around his mouth hanging open and eyes full of surprise as he observed the mess that was Fairy Tail. The only place that seemed to be calm was the bar area where a beautiful white haired woman was wiping the counter down. Lucy noticed this little haven too and decided that would be the best place to let Kizaru get a scope of everything and let people notice him. She led Kizaru to a spot in front of Mira and took a seat on one of the bar stools, Kizaru settling next her, though he sat at an angle as his legs were too long to cramp into the space between bar and stool. Lucy noticed that Loke had gone off into the crowd. Probably to find Gray.

Mirajane finally looked up and when she did her pretty blue eyes widen at the sight of the tall man that sat next too Lucy. The man grinned lethargically at the busty woman's reaction and waved lazily at her. Lucy smiled at Mira when the woman turned her startled gaze to Lucy.

"Mira this Admiral Kizaru, also known as Borsalino. Borsalino this Mirajane Strauss but everyone calls her Mira. She's got a younger brother and sister around here somewhere..." Lucy trailed of looking behind her to see if she could catch a glimpse of either of them but proving unsuccessful. Lisanna was understandable but if she couldn't find Elfman then Lucy worried for her eyesight. She shrugged anyway and turned back to the other two.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Borsalino. You're one of Lucy's new spirits? I don't think I've heard of one them having a ranking?" Mira greeted sweetly.

"Well you see Mira, Borsalino here isn't a spirit, he's human just from another world." Lucy answered.

"What? I didn't even know that was possible."

"You and me both."

"Well then Admiral I hope you treat Lucy well. Because if you don't..." For the briefest of moments Kizaru felt the makings of a shiver run down his spine as a creepy aurora emitted for the still sweetly smiling woman.

"Don't worry Mira-san I plan on treating Lucy-chan veeeeeeerrry well." He grinned suggestively.

"Unless you want to be treated well too?" What could he say, he loved the ladies. Now if only he could get them to love him back...

"What kind of question is that? Of course I wanted to be treated well!" Kizaru looked at her in shock, could it be...

"Mira-san I don't think that's what he meant..."

"How else would he mean- Oh! He meant it in the _naughty _way. In that case I think I'm good." Mira blushed and looked to side and Kizaru felt his grin slide back on his face. Now that was a reaction he was more used too.

Suddenly Kizaru felt wind rush past him following in the wake something large as was thrown past his head and into the Strauss sibling. Kizaru's face fell in surprise and blinked slowly before both he and Lucy leaned over the counter top to look where Mira was being crushed under the weight of heavily muscled man with white hair.

"Mira-san! Are you okay!?" Lucy asked worriedly. The older woman smiled happily nodding her head and assured man and woman that she was fine before passing out. Just as she did so the man that Kizaru assumed to be Mira's brother shot up from the floor startling the two by standers.

"Natsu! Look at what you did! Get over here so I can show you how to be a man!" The white haired man bellowed before plowing though the counter. Seriously there was broken wood and everything.

"Don't encourage him Elfman..." Wakaba sighed from his perch next to Macao.

"Bring it on Elfman! I'll take all of you on!" Natsu cried as fire spouted forth from his mouth.

"Natsu! Watch were your pointing that thing!" Grey yelled. Immediatly this caught Nastu's attention and the two entered to another screaming match which of course evolved into another brawl which ended up drawing everyone into another guild wide brawl. Kizaru watched all this with rapt fasination not used such chaos.

"Oooohh I see what you mean by never having a dull day." Kizaru quipped and he barely heard Lucy sigh as he watched a large amountof people suddenly dog piled on man with numerous amounts piecrings.

"I'm sorry you have to see this Borsalino. They tend to get a little... to excited."

"Ah don't worry about it Lucy-chan. It's a nice change of pace from the strictness of the Marines." At this Lucy looked over to the lounging Admiral and blinked at him curiously. Off in the distance she could hear Elfman screaming about Laxus not being a real man for not joining the fight.

"What do you mean?" Kizaru spared her a glance before focusing back on the tangle of limbs where large amounts of sand had become involved. Oh look there went the CP member flying into a wall. Kizaru couldn't help but grin evilly at his pain.

"I mean that the Marines are a lot stricter on how they conduct themselves. Fights will sometimes break out withing grunt ranks but the highers neeeever have brawls like this. One because Sengoku and Sakazuki-kun are such hard asses and God help anyone who pisses them off and two because the amount of cost in damage repairs would be too high. So from Rear Admiral and up brawling is usually out of their system. Unless you're Vice Admiral Garp."

"Oh." Lucy, in Kizaru's own magnificent opinion, said cutely. Immediately the light Admiral's attention when from watching the pinkette yell at a muscular blonde guy with a badass looking scar, and to the beautiful beauty beside him. True he had only been in her presence for a very short amount of time but he was quickly finding that watching the blonde think things through was becoming a favorite pass time of his. Emotions would flood across her face as she thought things through and the expressions she made were either really freaking adorable or ridiculously amusing. Yes, Kizaru thought as her face contorted into an expression of horror, he had definitely made the right choice in agreeing to act as one of her 'spirits.'

Lucy meanwhile did not notice how closely she was being watched by the amused Admiral, instead too caught up in the feelings of horror, wonder, confusion, and suspicion. The girl concentrated hard as she attempted to put two and two together from what the Admiral had just said. For starters, from what she had seen of Kizaru he was insanely strong and incomprehensibly fast and she had a sinking feeling that wasn't even his true strength. And the way he talked about this Sengoku and Sakazuki made her believe that they were either in equal in rank or his commanding officers. So then it would be logical to guess that they were either as powerful or more so than Kizaru. Thus Lucy gained a new found fear of the world that Kizaru came from because surely if it produced such monsters then it must be a harsh place. One that she hoped she would never visit. Still that didn't stop her from being immensely curious about it. However she controlled herself ,afraid that she would become an annoyance to her new spirit if she pestered him too many with questions.

"Lu-chan!" Lucy was brought out of her revive when she heard her pixie like friend, Levy call out her name. Both Lucy and Kizaru turned their heads to where they heard the shout and watched as Levy ducked and dodged through the rowdy crowd. Levy approached Lucy with a friendly smile and wave but cast a quick but curious glance towards Kizaru.

"Hey! Long time no see! You've been cooped up in your apartment for so long we all thought you had died!" Levy joked teasingly. Lucy laughed light heartily before nodding her head to the chuckling Admiral as he watched Laxus beat the living snot out of **Natsu.**

"I was postponing having to deal with him for as long as I could. I was, well a little intimidated by him." Lucy whispered to Levy, trying to keep the Admiral from hearing her embarrassing confession. Little did she know that Kizaru's hearing was above average and thus allowed him to hear every whispered word as clear as day. Though it was nothing too surprising, as he had guessed from her unease that she was at least somewhat scared of him. Deciding he would let the two catch-up in private for now he focused all of his attention back on the creepy woman that shot water at anyone who got to close to the ice guy. Man this guild was hilarious.

"I don't blame you his height alone is scary as it is!" Levy nodded seriously.

"And how he took out Minerva so easily!"

"He didn't even break a sweat!"

"But you know Levy, that wasn't the scariest part. It was right before he and Minerva started fighting. It was like he became a different person."

"What do ya mean?" Levy asked eagerly.

"I mean... It's like how Natsu or Gajeel get excited for fight, you know how focused they seem to get? Expect I don't think he was excited for the fight itself but more for the fact that he was about to pound someone into the dust."

"Like blood lust?!" Levy gasped equal parts excited and terrified.

"Yeah! You know for a second there at the end, I thought... he was gonna kill Minerva." Lucy trailed off nervously. As if having a ridiculously strong spirit wasn't enough but that he also seemed to have no problem with killing people. It scared Lucy in ways she had never imagined. Nervously Levy glanced back over at the seemingly peaceful Admiral who held a small grin as enjoyed the spectacle before them. Other than how he looked like he enjoying the huge fight there looked to be nothing wrong with him. Abruptly he turned his head back to the girls and Levy let a small 'eep' when he winked at her.

"See something you liiiiiiike?" He flirted shamelessly and his grin only widened when he heard Lucy sigh.

"Borsalino this is Levy McGarden. Levy this Admiral Kizaru, also known as Borsalino." Lucy introduced.

The two strangers greeted each other, Levy nervously, and Kizaru amicably.

"So Kizaru, what do you think of the guild so far?" Levy asked politely.

"I think this place fuuuuuun! I especially like that fire guy Natsu, he seems to be a riot! But that Elfman guy's manliness scaaaaarrrreees me." Kizaru said frowning completely serious. The two girls glanced at each other before bursting into a fit of giggles that had Kizaru nervously glancing back and forth at the two girls. If there was one thing that made his hackles rise it's when two girls start giggling. Nothing good ever came from giggling women. Especially when they hid their faces behind their hands.

"Whhhhhaaaattt?" Kizaru whined. They were laughing at him, he knew it.

"I-it's nothing Kizaru-san!" Levy said airily still trying to keep her giggling under wraps. Kizaru however did not believe them and strained a nervous smile at them pleading with his eyes for them to bring him into light. Lucy took pity on him and through her giggling informed him.

"It's just that... what you just said sounded so weird!" She chuckled. Kizaru's eyes widened and his mouth feel open in mild horror before his face quickly rearranged itself back into it's default expression of amusement.

"I just meeeaaaannnt that him screaming about what a true maaaaannn is kinda weeeeeiiiird." Kizaru scratched the back of his sheepishly. The girl's continued to chortle and Levy leaned over to Lucy pretend to whisper conspiratorially.

"Me thinks that someone's just a boy who can't handle being a maaaaaaaan." Levy mocked. Kizaru suddenly leaned over to the two waving his hands in front of him and began to sputter about he was too a man but was rudely interrupted when a thick muscled finger was shoved into his face.

"You! What kind of Man is afraid of being a Man! It's totally un-manly!" Elfman bellowed, and Kizaru just looked at him, not believing that his masculinity was being questioned by someone he had never meet before. To his horror the rest of Lucy's guild was watching the two men's interaction, all of them snickering or in full blown laughter. Great public humiliation. Really he had hoped that when he got to the rank of being an Admiral he wouldn't hsve to worry about this stuff. However he sighed and then smiled innocently (or as innocent as he could get his face to look) at the man before him and closed his eyes in a peaceful manner.

"I'm noooooot! I just said that you yelling about knowing what a true man is must mean you spend _looooooots _of time around other men." He opened his eyes back up and grinned at Elfman in a knowing manner. The people around them burst into a fit of laughter as Elfman's face flushed red hot and began yelling angrily at Borsalino trying to defend himself but doing a poor job at when all Kizaru did was hum disbelievingly at Elfman's every argument.

Off to the side Lucy laughed happily relieved to see that her new spirit and guild-mates were getting along for the most part. However something still tingled the back of her mind, warning her that she should exercise caution when dealing with this man. For the most part it seemed to be unfounded fears but still... There was a certain harshness to him, an underlining mean streak that could come out easily if he was provoked. Though as she watched Nastu holler into an ever grinning Kizaru's face trying to get him to fight him, she decided that it couldn't possibly be that big of a deal. Surely if someone that could only chuckle at Natsu's excitable personality then they couldn't be that mean of a person.

Right?

Right.

Maybe.

Poor Lucy didn't realize what she was in for.

* * *

It was late when the pair of Lucy and Borsalino made their way out of the guild after spending the majority of the day introducing Borsalino to Fairy Tail. In that time Kizaru learned the true meaning of hyper. Though that wasn't to say he didn't enjoy himself, because he found the guild's rambunctious behavior to be a nice change of pace from the strictness and order of the Marines. Although he couldn't imagine having to deal with the child like guild day in and day out. He did learn many things about his new... companion, like how she adored to read and was currently writing a book, her other spirits, about 'Team Natsu' (who she assured he would meet soon)and their habit of destroying almost everything, her daily struggle with rent, and other things. He also learned that Makarov was a perv, sweet Mirajane was known as the 'She-Demon,' that a man named Bickslow seemed to take after Doflamingo when it came to his tongue, Natsu could eat fire, Gray could make ice like Kuzan, and there were 'Dragon Slayers,' and the guild had four if you counted Laxus. Truly Kizaru found this to be an interesting place with each passing second and that was only the tip of the ice berg!

Lucy found her place on the stone ledge next to the water canal and she began her balancing act. She looked from the corner of her eye to observe Kizaru's reactions to Magnolia, but the only emotion he seemed to express was his grinning amusement as he swiveled his head around taking in the architecture. In the few hours that she had known him, she noticed that the only expressions that seemed to ever cross his face was amusement, shock, surprise, and that stupid perverted grin. She couldn't help but wonder if he was always like that or if the maliciousness she had seen from him a week ago was his true personality.

In fact now that she stopped to think about it, she wasn't really sure what he was like. The only two things she could say confidently say about him was that he was a pervert and that everything seemed to amuse him. What if he didn't like her? Did he have family? Was he a good leader? Or was he cruel? It was these questions and countless more that plagued her mind as she strolled next to the subject of her thoughts.

"Be carefully miss Lucy, you don't wanna fall in!" Lucy absentmindedly waved to the boat men as they passed by.

"They're right you knnnooooow." Kizaru chirped. He had been so silent that she almost forgot that he had been there. Kizaru seemed to pick up on this as he grinned teasingly at her.

"You forgot I was here didn't yoooou! Lucy-chan, I'm hurt!" He feigned, clutching his chest in fake pain and placing the back of his hand on his forehead while dramatically looking off into the distance. The blonde giggled behind a dainty hand at his antics and he soon joined her with his own deep chuckles.

"Sooo what were you thinking about?"

"Hmm?"

"Before, you were very deep in thouuuuught!"

"Oh I wasn't thinking about anything."

"Tsk Lucy-chaaaan, you're not a very good liar. Yooouu were thinking about meeeee weren't you?" He winked at her playfully.

"Okay, yes. But not in the way your thinking!"

"Mmhm." He hummed disbelievingly.

"I was just wondering about the Marines and how high up an Admiral is."

"Ah I see, well that's less exciting. Hmm let me think. Well my world is essentially run by the World Government, the Navy or more commonly know as the Marines, is it's military force. At the bottom of the Marines you have your regular grunts and lieutenants, in the middle there's the captains, commodores, and rear-admirals, and then at the top are Vice Admirals, Admirals, and finally the Fleet-Admiral who's the head of the Marines." Kizaru lifted his hand and used his fingers to number off each level. He couldn't help the somewhat proud grin that spread across his face when Lucy looked up at him with a new found admiration.

"So then you're... You must be ridiculously powerful if you're that high ranking!"

"Ahhh Lucy-chan~! You're making me blush!"

"But it's true isn't it!? I mean if you're that high up then have to be!"

"Ah ha I don't knoooow!"

"How many Admirals are their?"

"Threeeee."

"See! You've got to be crazy strong and you know it! Your just pretending to be modest!" She playfully swatted him on the arm and earned herself more chuckles.

"Your riiiiight." He agreed un-modestly. Lucy just shook her head at him smiling and looked up to realize that they were at her apartment. She stopped and jumped down from the ledge and walked over to her front door. He followed her until she turned back around to face him and she lifted her arms over her head to crack her back. She then looked back up to the ever grinning Admiral who was enjoying the sight in front of him.

"Well I guess it's about time you got home. I'm sure someone noticed that you were gone. Sorry about that." Lucy smiled sheepishly. He waved her apology off.

"Don't worry about it Lucy-chan. They're big Marines they can look after themselves for a few hours." He joked. Suddenly though Lucy looked down and poked her fingers together nervously, causing Kizaru to frown slightly in mild concern.

"Um Borsalino can I can ask you something?"

"Suuuuure."

"When I first tried using your key why didn't you come?"

"Lucy-chan you're a Celestial wizard so your used to magical stuuuuff. But I'm not, so when I felt and heard someone in my head, I was little concerned about my well being. Powerful I might be but that doesn't mean I'm invulnerable." Lucy nodded her head in understanding.

"But then why did you help in the fight against Minerva?"

"I don't know, cause I had nothing else to do, I felt bad for you, and it seemed like the right thing to do at the time." Kizaru shrugged happily. Lucy considered his words for moment before nodding tucking them away for further analyzing for later.

"Okay!" She chirped and Kizaru felt himself smirk.

"Well I'll see you late Lucy-chhaaaan!"

"Mmhm!" And with that the tired but happy blonde closed Kizaru's gate sending him home. With the tall man no longer there to worry about the blonde turned on her heel to walk back into her home. After such a long day she needed a shower and then sleep, which she predicted would be long and peaceful.

* * *

**Whew so there it is, another chapter. This one was a pain to write cause I lost like half of what I wrote and then had to gp back and re-write it, but I did it! I know it's a lot of talking and not a lot of action is really happening but we have to get the ground work down. Hopefully next chapter or the chapter after that will be a little more exciting. So thoughts? Mistakes? Plot holes? I'm here to make this story as enjoyable as possible as I can for you, so just tell me what you want to see more of or whatever. **

**Reviews are nice ya know? PMs too, if you're shy!**

**Thanks for reading!**


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